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Volume 100, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 0025-9454
  • E-ISSN: 1876-2816

Abstract

Abstract

Centrist anti-establishment parties (CAPs) are an understudied new type of protest party, described as parties with moderate ideological views that use anti-establishment rhetoric and attract protest voters. This article explores voters’ motivations to vote for NSC, a new CAP that won 20 seats in the 2023 Dutch parliamentary elections. Resulting from 14 interviews with voters, three ideal-types can be deduced. The first type is substantive voters, who were attracted to NSC’s ideas about democratic renewal and good governance. These voters exhibit intellectualism and diplomacy when speaking about politics. The second type is affective voters, who voted for NSC because of party leader Omtzigt’s individual work in exposing political scandals. They speak about politics in an emotional, personal manner. Finally, the third type is volatile voters, who chose to vote for NSC due to positive media coverage of the party. They are more casual and less passionate about NSC than other voters. The study finds that NSC voters are resistant to the ‘protest’ label for themselves as voters and NSC as a party, implying that a rethinking of this label is needed when it comes to CAPs and to ‘protest parties’ in general. Based on the literature on protest parties, the study poses the possibility that CAPs could serve as ‘gateway’ parties to more ‘extreme’ protest parties.

© Hanneke van der Linden
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2025-03-01
2025-04-09
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/content/journals/10.5117/MEM2025.1.005.LIND
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NSC, onschuldige proteststem of gateway party?
M&M 100, 85 (2025); https://doi.org/10.5117/MEM2025.1.005.LIND
/content/journals/10.5117/MEM2025.1.005.LIND
/content/journals/10.5117/MEM2025.1.005.LIND
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Keyword(s): centrist anti-establishment parties; political discontent; protest choice; protest parties; protest voters

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