| dc.description.abstract | For two decades, the far right in Denmark was represented solely by a populist radical right party, the Danish People’s Party. With a steady growth in every election since its founding, the party eventually became a major actor in Danish politics. Even with a change of leadership, the party continued to dominate the right-wing. When the Danish People’s Party became the country’s second largest political party in 2015, it was considered a populist triumph. Few far-right parties in Europe have had as much success in winning direct influence over policy output. Now, five years later, the Danish People’s Party has lost three-quarters of its voter support. By adopting tougher positions on immigration, the two mainstream parties, the Social Democrats and the center-right Liberal Party, managed to win back some of the voters who previously left them for the Danish People’s Party. This thesis, however, takes a closer look at why voters went the other direction, to the party’s two new radical competitors on the far right. The party is currently polling below the New Right, which in just a couple of years has managed to draw level with the Danish People’s Party on the right-wing by challenging the established party on immigration. Meanwhile, Rasmus Paludan’s Hard Line party won nearly two percent of the vote on a policy platform that included a ban on Islam and the forcible deportation of all non-Western residents. What has caused this political fragmentation of the far right? And what is it with these new rivals that make them so appealing to voters and enable them to compete with, and even outflank, the established far-right party in elections? | eng |