Global Trends, Local Adaptations: Comparing Far Right Frames in Latin America and Europe

This article examines the discourse of far-right leaders in Latin America and Europe to assess the extent of global convergence and regional specificity within contemporary far-right politics. Existing scholarship on the far right has focused primarily on Europe and North America, leaving the Global South understudied and raising questions about whether frameworks developed in the North adequately capture the dynamics of far-right politics elsewhere. To address this gap, we conduct a systematic comparative analysis of speeches and social media posts produced by prominent far-right figures in both regions between 2022 and 2024. Using qualitative content and frame analysis, we identify a set of shared master frames that form a recognizable transnational grammar of far-right politics. At the same time, our findings reveal important regional differences. In Europe, far-right leaders focus heavily on immigration, identity, and cultural defense, framing migrants and supranational institutions as existential threats. In Latin America, by contrast, far-right discourse centers on crime, corruption, and domestic political adversaries, often infused with religious and nationalist themes. These distinct emphases illustrate how shared repertoires are reshaped by local political, institutional, and cultural contexts. The findings complicate assumptions of a cohesive, global, far-right movement. Rather than a uniform phenomenon, the far right emerges as a constellation of actors whose discursive strategies are simultaneously connected across borders and embedded in local realities. The study contributes to debates on diffusion, adaptation, and the heterogeneity of far-right populism worldwide.