Conspiracy Theories in a Populist Right-Wing Party

In this thesis, conspiracy-related tweets of the right-wing populist party Forum voor Democratie and their endorsers are analyzed to understand how conspiracy theories are discussed in those tweets. Therefore, first, previous studies are described to provide an overview of conspiracy theories, the psychological processes behind them, how conspiracies function on social media, and their thematic and narrative characteristic. The tweets, sent between March and April of 2021, were analyzed based on a codebook on five main codes. Based on the analysis, the most discussed topics were the national elections and COVID-19. Furthermore, distrust towards the government was found. Lastly, most often the sentiment of these tweets was negative and especially angry.