Donatella della Porta Manuela Caiani Claudius Wagemann European University Institute

1. Radicalization and the Discourse of Race and Religion: A comparative Analysis of Extreme Right in Italy and Germany Donatella della Porta Manuela Caiani Claudius Wagemann European University Institute Workshop Politicization & Radicalization 25-27 July 2008 VU University Amsterdam

2. The VETO Project • VETO: Violent Extremist Terrorist Organizations (START center of the University of Maryland-EUI, Florence) • Main idea: Radicalization of political activism (origins of political violence) • Comparative case study: The extreme right in Italy and Germany (later: US) • 3 Components: frame analysis, network analysis, protest event analysis

3. Approaching Right-Wing Extremism • Pathologies of behavior of activists (irrationality) • Breakdown theories vs. ‘resource mobilization’ approaches • “Cultural turn” in social movement research • Social mechanisms that intervene between macro-causes and macro-effects

4. Basic Assumptions Structural effects are mediated by the militants’ perception of the reality through which their political involvement develops. The use of violence can be understood only within the context of an individual's political career, during which collective identities are built and transformed through collective processes. In order to understand radical politics-as other forms of politics-it is therefore important to investigate individual and group understanding of the external reality, as well as their position in it.

5. Method: triangulation strategy in VETO • Three different analytical approaches: frame analysis, network analysis, protest event analysis • Three different sources for the frame analysis • Quantitative and qualitative modules for each analytical approach

6. Frame analysis: cognitive mechanisms which are relevant in influencing organizational and individual behavior. • Network analysis: (inter-)organizational structural characteristics of the extreme right milieu. • Protest event analysis: broad repertoire of collective action undertaken by right-wing extremists over the last decade.

7. Extreme Right and Religion • Recent radicalization of some political conflicts, up to the extreme forms of terrorism • New attention to the role of religious cleavages in politics (and their escalation) • Intensification of the ‘Clash of Civilizations’ rhetoric Main question: How far extremist, especially right-wing extremist forces deal with the new focusing of the public discourse on the religious dimension? Or, more explicitly, to which extent are extreme right organizations in Italy and Germany ready and willing to exploit the new attention to religion by adapting their frames and re-orienting their action repertoires?

8. Cases and Sources: Frame analysis • For each country: 3 different types of extreme right organizations (a political party, a political movement, a sub-cultural skinhead group) and written documents • Germany • NPD: newspaper • Nationales Bündnis Dresden (NBD): online forum of discussion • Comradeships Neu-Ulm and Hochfranken (‘Kameradschaften’): websites • Italy • Forza Nuova: newspaper • Veneto Fronte Skinheads: monthly magazine • Camerata Virtuale: on line forum of discussion • Data collected: 4000 statements, 2001-2006 • Categories for the Coding: Issue field Subject actor Object actor Ally actor Action (Non-action) “is/ will/ should”

9. Cases and Sources: protest event analysis • Sources: German (“Taz”) and Italian newspapers ( “La Repubblica”), Search strings • Data collected: 645 protest events, 2000-2007 • Categories for the Coding: Type of action Actor Participants (numbers) Wounded, arrested, denounced activists Targets of protest Object of protest Issue fields Counter events

10. Table 1: Broader issue fields treated in the statements(percentage)

11. Focusing on Christianity: Values and Law & Order (frames) Table 2: Statements related to value issues

12. Focusing on Christianity: Values and Law & Order (protest events) Table 4: Protest events related to value issues

13. ‘homosexuals’ are the most frequently recurring target of extreme right actions in Italy, with a share of 12.6% of all covered events addressed against them.

14. Focusing on Islam: Immigration and Security Table 5: Statements (frames) and events related to specific immigration issues Statements Protest events

15. Actors • Muslims in frames: In Germany, ‘Muslims’ are mentioned only in 0.1% (n = 2) of all statements coded. ‘Foreigners (in general)’ are mentioned in 2.8% of all statements. • Muslims in protest events: In Italy, actions directed against the ‘immigrants (in general)’ account for 4.7% of all covered events. Among them, 2.6% of events are specifically against Muslims.

16. Focusing on the Jewish Religion: History and National Identity Table 7: Statements (frames) and events related to historical and identity issues Statements Protest events

17. Focusing on the Jewish Religion: History and National Identity Table 8: Actors related to anti-Semitism

18. The category ‘religious minorities’, represents the third most frequent target of extreme right actions in Italy, accounting for 7.7% of all codified events. Within this general category: 6.2% of events refer to ‘Jews’, or to specific ‘leading representatives of Jews’, or to ‘Israel’.

19. Conclusions • Religion per se does not seem to play much of a role in the discourses and actions of the extreme right as religion per se is rarely mentioned and acted upon,in both countries • Frames and protest events are however linked to religious discourses in more complex ways. • Country specificities: • Form of fundamentalist Catholicism propagated by extreme right groups in Italy • Definition of a religious dimension in anti-Semitism in Germany

20. …Conclusions • Sociological processes activated around religion in politics:religion as cultural or structural phenomenon? • Usefulness of the frame analysis: The use of concepts like (religious) ideology, appears as too broad to take into account the specific political adaptations of specific aspects of the broad and heterogeneous culture of each religion. • Importance to look at the actions of protest: They are at the same time the sites for expression of ideas, but also contribute to the reproduction of them.A structural approach to the “religious revival” has to focus on the organizational activation of the resources into actions.