This article is co-authored with Luke Shuttleworth and Katy Brown

Shuttleworth, L., Brown, K., & Mondon, A. (2025). The pretence of the cordon sanitaire: non-collaboration as a distraction from discursive congruence. Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/14782804.2025.2549800

Abstract:

Much has been written about how mainstream parties respond to far-right
challengers in liberal democracies. Whereas some mainstream parties have
become more open to forming coalitions with far-right parties, in many
countries collaboration with the far right remains ruled out. Often, the
metaphor of the cordon sanitaire is used to highlight how
mainstream parties form a bulwark against the far right. Yet whilst
mainstream parties often exclude far right parties from government, they
are more open to adopting some of their reactionary policies and
discourses. We analyse these dynamics in the French, German and British
cases. These give insights into how cordon sanitaires can be
transgressed in policy and discourse in different political contexts. We
argue that the concept itself should be scrutinised more closely and
question whether parties can claim to be adhering to the cordon
sanitaire if they simultaneously push far-right policies and discourses.
Focusing primarily on electoral collaboration ignores processes of
mainstreaming and normalisation in which the legitimation of far-right
politics is chiefly driven by the mainstream itself. Where public
outrage often emerges when mainstream parties formally collaborate with
the far right, we argue that discursive dynamics are equally crucial and
yet underestimated.