Description
As the far right has become increasingly mainstreamed in recent years and the literature on the populist radical right has grown, it is surprising that the study of youth organizations has largely been neglected by existing literature. This article researches this specific party parallel organization in an area that remains a stranger in the field of far-right studies: the Baltics. The article draws on original data from interviews with activists belonging to the youth organization of the Conservative People’s Party of Estonia (EKRE), “Sinine Äratus”, from qualitative content analysis of social media content and press releases, organizational activities, and foreign policy platforms complimented by interviews with party members. It then assesses the impact that each youth organization has had on its mother party during its period of government, mapping changes in frames and discourse in the following areas: (i) rhetoric and policy relating to foreign policy, (ii) political cleavages vis-à-vis value or culture wars, and (iii) the neo-national awakening inspired by both the Estonian national awakening of the 19th century, and the metapolitical ideology of the new right, which aims to challenge political and cultural hegemony in Western society. The article’s central argument is that youth organizations can exercise an impact on both the rhetoric and policy of their mother party through youth organizations’ members who are also on the board of the mother party. Preliminary findings demonstrate that Sinine Äratus has exerted policy influence over EKRE by following the leads that the youth organization has taken on several contemporary issues, such as supporting the independence of Catalonia. In some instances, the influence is direct, and in others indirect; however, a clear policy position can be detected first in press releases of the youth organization and then later on, with the mother party.
