Linking religiosity, LGBTQI+ attitudes, and Populist Radical Right: How context matters—Evidence from Italy, Hungary, and the Netherlands

This article examines how religiosity and attitudes toward gender and LGBTQI+ rights intersect in shaping support for populist radical right (PRR) parties in Europe. Using four waves of the European Social Survey (2016–2024), we compare Italy, Hungary, and the Netherlands, three countries that exemplify divergent trajectories of secularization and gender politics. By adopting an individual-level perspective, we find that religiosity does not structure PRR support in Italy, plays a limited but visible “vaccine” role in the Netherlands, and becomes a positive “fundamentalist” driver of support in Hungary, where religion is strongly politicized. It also finds that conservative attitudes toward gender and LGBTQI+ rights are less influential than expected. The comparative lens reveals that religiosity produces distinct electoral effects across countries, underscoring the need to integrate context-sensitive approaches in the study of PRRs.