Rhetorical Consensus About the EU? Comparing Established and New Parties in Europe

In recent decades, researchers have approached the topic of new parties, often explaining how they emerge, adapt to political systems, and gain supporters. However, little research has looked at how discourses differ between new and old parties. The present paper aims to cover this gap by looking at parties’ manifestos and their discourses in relation to the European Union to establish whether there are differences in their views. The study includes the manifestos of political parties that have received over 1% of votes in the latest national elections in 12 EU countries. The qualitative content analysis focuses on 101 electoral manifestos that were published between 2019 and 2024. This paper contributes to the literature that focuses on new political parties.