Far-right greenwashing: the twisting of sustainability

Purpose This paper aims to study how the concept of sustainability has been redefined by far-right political actors to shed light on the discrepancy between their ideological profiles and political agendas. On the one hand, far-right politicians tend to use certain aspects of sustainability – such as green narratives – to capture the public’s attention and enter the mainstream political debate. At the same time, they often question climate change and, consequently, sustainable energy transition policies. Despite their ideological opposition to sustainability-related policies and their characteristic mistrust of science, far-right politicians appear to support certain sustainable goals. Design/methodology/approach Designed as a case study, this paper examines the discourse of a specific political party – Kotlebovci – People’s Party Our Slovakia (ĽSNS) – over an 11-year period (2013–2023), using a data set comprising 7,769 claims collected from the party’s official newspaper. The data set used in this research is based on 44 issues of the ĽSNS newspaper Our Slovakia (Naše Slovensko), published irregularly between 2013 and 2023. Findings The findings suggest that the Slovakian far right is currently engaging in political greenwashing, incorporating nationalist, protectionist and exclusivist elements into the very notion of sustainability. The paper also shows how the Slovak far-right political party ĽSNS uses political greenwashing to incorporate and redefine the United Nations (UN) sustainability goals into its agenda to join the mainstream discussion. Practical implications The research contributes to the academic discussion on the crucial question of broader political support for the universality of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It addresses how far-right political actors contribute to the ideological tainting of universal and global concepts with nationalist and protectionist/exclusive features, as well as the “twisting” of various aspects of sustainability policies. Social implications The development of public debate involving the ideological tainting of the sustainability concept by the far right has potentially severe consequences for how the SDGs will be politically addressed, supported and achieved, as well as the impact of practical and policy sustainability solutions. Originality/value The case study of the Slovak context is highly relevant to this topic, as previous research suggests that the far right tends to incorporate ideological positions into environmental and ecological arguments. Moreover, sustainability has been at the centre of political attention, particularly following the Paris Agreement, making it a suitable example of a policy area where the far right’s entry into public discussion from an ideologically determined position may be highly influential.