The established radical right political parties (RRPPs) are having an increasing electoral success in most Western European party systems. The factors responsible for this phenomenon are a matter of considerable debate in the literatures on political parties and European party competition. It is argued that political parties are programmatically inflexible towards cleavage structures. However, this research will look at how established RRPPs have internalised and intercepted both classical and more recent fundamental socio-political changes. 

This work is based on a comparative case study research between the Italian League and the French National Rally. Secondary data analysis and manual content analysis are used to investigate both the official press organ and the electoral manifestos of the case studies, covering a time frame between the early 1980s and 2019.

This analysis is fundamental to understand whether and how established political parties of radical right-wing party family have been able to design their political narrative and political offer alongside the advent of the new cleavage structures to be electorally competitive in Western European countries.