The CFP dataset is based on the standard coding procedures of Protest Event Analysis (PEA) developed in the projects FARPE, Eurislam, and SOM, and later applications by Pietro Castelli Gattinara for the Charlie Hebdo debate (2018) as well as Andrea Pirro and colleagues for the transformation of the Movement for a Better Hungary (2019). Data collection is funded by the Center for Research on Extremism (C-REX), University of Oslo and the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics at Sciences Po.
The CFP data is retrieved by triangulating two types of sources: a) the news section of national quality newspaper databases; and b) press releases published by party/movement/group official websites. The dataset includes all protest events promoted by selected far-right groups in several European countries.
We understand a protest event as: A collective, public action, organised by a far-right actor (e.g. political party, social movement, group), with the explicit purpose of expressing critique or dissent, and/or advancing societal or political demands via non-institutional channels and/or non-electoral means.
The goal of the CFP project
Our goal is to study cross-national and over-time developments in far-right protest mobilization in Europe and beyond. More specifically, we shall try to find an answer to the following questions:
- What are the main features of contemporary far-right protest mobilization? What are the main targets, claims and tactics of contention put forth by the far right in the different national contexts? Which national settings displays highest levels of protest mobilization? Which types of far-right actors dominate the protest arena?
- What explains cross-national variation in far-right protest mobilization? What supranational factors, country-level conditions and group-level characteristics facilitate mobilization? Does far-right protest vary in response to national crises, international constraints, government actions and the reactions of allies and challengers?
- What explains overtime change in far-right protest mobilization? What have been the main transformations over the last two decades, in terms of scope, targets and tactics of contention? Has there been any major shift in the power relations between increasingly institutionalised political parties and street-based grassroots movements? Did protest shift its focus from cultural conflict to traditional economic grievances?
Read more about C-REX research on far-right parties and movements here.