Polarising the Christian West: Us and them in far-right parties’ rhetoric

Far-right communication often portrays a division between ‘the people’ and perceived antagonists, potentially fuelling intergroup tensions. A pivotal element is the politicisation of religion: in Christian-shaped regions, far-right parties invoke Christianity as part of Western identity – despite their weak religious ties and growing secularisation. This paradox raises questions about religion’s function in far-right discourse. I argue that far-right parties systematically use a conservative reading of Christianity as a demarcation tool – marking not only Islam but also cultural liberalism as incompatible with a Christian-framed ingroup. Using parliamentary data from Europe, I conduct automated text classification to identify religious markers and their co-occurrence with inclusionary–exclusionary rhetoric across countries and over time. Results reveal group-specific framing, distinct patterns of religious invocation compared to other parties, and links of these patterns to events. This study demonstrates how Christian narratives serve as rhetorical resources for boundary construction, challenging the cohesion of even secularised societies.