Research associate and PhD candidate at FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg.
Max Münßinger (MA) is a political geographer and a research associate at the Institute of Geography at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg. He is a member of the editorial team of the academic online magazine grid, which explores the intersection of society, space, and digitality. Max doctoral research focuses on the geographical political economy of digital transformation, particularly in Germany and the European Union. In this context, he is interested in the level of digital infrastructures and related interactions between materiality and discourse.
This policy study investigates the strategies employed by European social democratic parties in response to the rise of far-right political parties since the 2010s. By building on well over 100 academic studies, we draw clear strategic implications for progressive actors facing far-right competition.
After looking at scientific research on how to fight the far right, a minimum of three strategic orientations emerge:
1) Social democrats must systematically understand why far-right narratives resonate – examining social grievances, emotions and discursive strategies – without adopting far-right frames.
2) They must reclaim agenda-setting power by foregrounding areas of long-standing credibility – notably, welfare, redistribution and economic justice – and by refusing debates imposed on far-right terms.
3) Social democrats need a positive, forward-looking vision that combines an inclusive collective identity with a credible agenda for economic equality, reconnecting policy with collective emotions.
Read the Policy Study
Academic Mentor: Daphne Halikiopoulou, Professor of Comparative Politics at University of Reading
Political Mentor: Mathias Ecke, S&D MEP of the European Parliament