The rising populist discourses of far right in Europe: In the case of brexit

Populism and far right are two concepts that are frequently found in the current political literature. Populism, which divides society into two different groups "us" and "them", has discriminatory features. The distcriminatory feature of populism is revealed by the developed populist discourses and leads the masses. The ability of populism to lead the masses in pursuit is also successfully accomplished by the today's far right. In this direction, today's far right develops populist discourses and increases their gains. The populist discourse that far right uses is paving the way for change in European politics. The far right parties with populist rhetoric achieve successful results in the elections and force the mainstream parties to take measures against this rise. One of the developments in this process was the decision of the government's Conservative Party in the United Kingdom to hold a referendum on leaving the European Union. In the referendum process called Brexit, the populist far-right party, the United Kingdom Independence Party, was positioned on the separatist side and tried to convince its constituents by developing populist discourses. The main argument of this thesis is that "The increasing populist far-right parties and populist discourses in the Europe and in the United Kingdom have been effective in the conclusion of the Brexit result in favor of separation.". In order to prove the accuracy of this argument, firstly, a conceptual framework was established on the association of populism and far right. In addition, populist far right parties, which are a result of this association, their election successes and their voter profiles are discussed in this thesis, in order to make a healthy comparison with the results of Brexit. Also, the process of the rising populist discourses of the extreme right and the factors affecting this process have been explained in order to better understand the factors affecting the formation of Brexit.