With the growing success of the populist radical right in
Europe, the number of cases where representatives of the
populist radical right speak out on environmental issues is
also increasing. The aim of this diploma thesis is to
characterise the relationship of the populist radical right in
Slovakia to environmental issues. This relationship is
explained using the concept of nationalism, the concept of
globalisation and the concept of populism. The empirical
analysis is based on a content analysis of the official
promotional materials of the analysed Slovak parties. The
results of the content analysis show that Slovak populist
radical right parties work with the aesthetic, symbolic and
materialistic dimensions of nature in their materials. From the
perspective of globalisation, the promotional materials claim
that global measures against climate change are destroying
Slovak agriculture, economy and traditional countryside. The
promotional materials also claim that these measures are being
exploited by elites who are served by scientists and
bureaucrats from the European Union. In terms of populism, the
representatives of the analysed parties link environmental
problems with the people and organisations they want to
criticise (e.g. non-governmental organisations or the Roma
community) and at the same time demonstrate their authenticity
that their parties are the only true protectors of Slovak
nature. Last but not least, the results show that Slovak
populist radical right parties approach environmental issues
differently when they are part of the government and
differently when they are not part of the government.