The Promise of a Better Past: Media, Authoritarian Nostalgia, and the Far Right

The rising electoral support for far-right parties has sparked vibrant debates about the sociopolitical dynamics driving this phenomenon. This paper investigates a crucial yet underexplored dimension: the interplay between media consumption, authoritarian nostalgia, and far-right voting behaviour. Focusing on Spain and Portugal – two countries with distinct yet comparable histories of authoritarian rule – survey data analyses suggest that readers of ABC in Spain and Correio da Manhã (CdM) in Portugal may develop higher levels of authoritarian nostalgia, which in turn correlates with a higher probability to support VOX and Chega, respectively. A content analysis conducted on these newspapers indicates that this pattern may be driven more by the tone adopted by the tabloid (CdM) and conservative ( ABC ) newspapers when discussing the authoritarian past rather than by higher levels of authoritarian nostalgia compared to other newspapers. This study contributes to political communication research by highlighting a mechanism through which media narratives shape historical perceptions and electoral choices.