Populist radical right parties and democracy during the COVID-19 pandemic: A comparative analysis of statements made by Rassemblement national and Vlaams Belang

The COVID-19 pandemic led to the adoption, by political authorities the world over, of measures that have often been described as freedom-depriving or even authoritarian. In the wake of the contestation of the democratic legitimacy of these measures, it seems important to study the statements made by populist radical right parties on democracy during this particular period. Indeed, these parties tend to be critical of liberal democracy, which they accuse of being governed by self-interested elites that systematically ignore the will of the people. This article aims to investigate this question by studying and comparing the discourses on democracy of two populist radical right parties: Vlaams Belang and Rassemblement national. To do so, we use thematic analysis to examine and compare their statements on Twitter and in parliament. This analysis highlights the anti-system and anti-establishment bent of these two parties, which leveraged the defense of democracy to bolster their critique of the system.