Participation of populist radical right parties in coalition governments of Central and Eastern Europe: do national party systems matter?

ABSTRACT Explanations of how populist radical right parties (PRRPs) get into government, especially in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), have so far received limited scholarly attention. This article explores the conditions of PRRPs’ cabinet inclusion in CEE from the perspective of national party systems by examining 34 instances of coalition government formation in 11 CEE states during 2000–2019 using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The inferred causal paths demonstrate that PRRPs join coalition cabinets in party systems, in which they either perform the role of “radical but necessary partners” or serve as the “like-minded juniors” for formateur parties.