For some far-right activists, the global lockdown was an occasion to celebrate closed borders. Whereas some denied the pandemic and used the global response to evoke global conspiracies, others sought to use the opportunity to crack down on civil liberties. The pandemic briefly shifted global attention away from migration, especially in the Global North, whereas the environment of uncertainty and fear seems to favor far right politics. A new era of statism has brought about not just what has been called “vaccine nationalismâ€, but also a reassertion of state control. Meanwhile, global anti-vaccination movements draw on far right themes of distrust in global elites, conspiracies and distrust in science. The panel will discuss how the pandemic has fueled nationalism around the globe and how different far right groups and movements responded to the pandemic.
Panelists:
Moderator: Florian Bieber (University of Graz, Austria)
