%0 Journal Article
%T Phobic Discourses of the Far Right: The Case of Volen Siderov
%A Yannis Sygkelos
%J East European Politics and Societies
%@ 1533-8371
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/0888325417736810
%X This article focuses on one of the factors that is conducive to the rise of the far right in current European societies: the articulation of phobic discourses. Far-right leadership has engaged in a systematic manipulation of phobias that lie in fears, anxieties, and discomfort towards the unknown and unfamiliar, omnipresent in our globalised world. This article investigates a set of phobic discourses articulated by the leader of the far-right Bulgarian political party ATAKA, Volen Siderov, but not uncommon in other far-right parties. More specifically, it explores ethnophobia, implying that the nation is withering away and that the country is being transformed into a mere colony, focusing on the topoi of ˇ°treachery and disasterˇ± and ˇ°threatened identity.ˇ± It then examines Islamophobia, encapsulating a fear of Islam and a fear of a threat from within, that is, the Muslim minority. Within this framework, the topoi of ˇ°perpetual cultural confrontation with Islamˇ± and ˇ°religious terrorismˇ± are analyzed. Last, it analyzes Romaphobia, denoting fear towards the marginalised group of Roma, and within this framework, the topoi of the ˇ°demographic explosion of Romaˇ± and the ˇ°bad human capital.ˇ± Such phobic discourses are emphasised by the far right for electoral benefit
%K Far-right
%K Bulgaria
%K nationalism
%K Islamophobia
%K Roma
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0888325417736810