Professors Kudelia and Nichols participate in the Conference of Europeanists
Dr. Sergiy Kudelia and Dr. Curt Nichols presented their co-authored paper “Transnational Solidarity Against Ukraine Aid? Comparing the AfD and the Freedom Caucus” at the 30th International Conference of Europeanists organized by the Council for European Studies. Held on July 3 – 5, 2024 in Lyon (France), the Conference addressed the general theme Radical Europe: Violence, Emancipation and Reaction.
In their paper, Dr. Kudelia and Dr. Nichols seek to identify the sources of opposition to further provision of aid to Ukraine from the members of two major right-wing populist groupings in the US (Freedom Caucus) and Germany (Alternative für Deutschland).
By examining the official statements, interviews and speeches of their members, drafts of the legislative acts and other contemporaneous sources, they show how the opposition to Ukraine aid has been driven by the combination of electoral considerations and ideological arguments aimed at reinforcing the overarching populist themes of the two forces.
Both the Freedom Caucasus and AfD tied their opposition to further Ukraine assistance to the ongoing immigration crisis and the national sovereignty concerns. The leaders of the two groups also framed their refusal to continue assistance to Ukraine in anti-elite terms and linked them to crisis narratives based on stressing the risks of global conflict escalation.
The analysis presented in the paper allows to identify the necessary attributes of an issue with electoral value to populist forces even in dissimilar political and institutional contexts.