Discursive Opportunities for the Estonian Populist Radical Right in a Digital Society

Abstract

This article analyzes the discursive opportunities, narratives, and dominant themes used by the Conservative People’s Party of Estonia (EKRE), a new populist radical right party, to achieve increasing visibility. Applying thematic analysis of EKRE’s social media content, we identify four main groups of issues that have formed the mainstay of EKRE’s political communication and framed the narrative that social media channels have disseminated: an anti-Russian stance, Euroskepticism, promotion of family values, and an anti-refugee discourse. We conclude that EKRE has successfully capitalized on specific conditions in the public sphere to increase its popularity.