The Rise of Challenger Parties
| Author | Catherine De Vries,Sara Hobolt |
| DOI | 10.1177/2041905820958817 |
| Published date | 01 September 2020 |
| Date | 01 September 2020 |
16POLITICAL INSIGHT•SEPTEMBER 2020
Parties with no recent government
experience have been on the
rise across Europe for the past
decades and have reshaped
politics as we know it. Unlike mainstream
parties that have experienced a steady
electoral decline, these ‘challenger
parties’ have recorded a slew of electoral
successes. Take the 2017 presidential
elections in France. Neither the candidate
of the centre-left Socialist Party nor the
candidate of the centre-right Conservative
Party made it to the final run-off. Instead,
the election became a contest between
two challengers: Emmanuel Macron
and his newly-formed La Republique En
The Rise of
Challenger Parties
The rise of parties outside the political mainstream
has been a defining story of European politics over the
past decade. But why have challenger parties proved so
successful? And will their appeal survive the pandemic?
Catherine De Vries and Sara Hobolt examine the evidence.
Marche! party and Marine Le Pen of the
radical right-wing National Rally (previously
National Front). While these parties had
very different ideological profiles, both
were challengers without previous office-
holding experience.
France is not the only country where
traditional parties have been losing
ground. In Italy, the ruling centre-left
Democratic Party was beaten to the top
spot in 2018 by the Five Star Movement,
founded by the Italian comedian Beppe
Grillo and the radical right-wing League.
In Spain, traditionally dominated by the
centre-right Popular Party and centre-left
© Press Association
Political Insight September 2020 BU.indd 16Political Insight September 2020 BU.indd 1604/08/2020 13:2804/08/2020 13:28
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