Introduction The radical right has been an integrated part of the Danish party system since the 1970s and has been allowed to set the agenda especially on immigration. The mainstream has often depended on their support in government. More recently, the Danish People’s Party (DF) has supported the liberal party in the last period in… Continue reading “Disastrous result for the radical right Danish People’s Party in latest elections”
Populist parties on both the radical right and left of the political spectrum in Europe have made considerable electoral gains over the last decade, but they have done so using notably different approaches. We draw on recent election data to show the extent to which the radical right has tended to outperform the radical left since the… Continue reading “Why has the populist radical right outperformed the populist radical left in Europe?”
Countering five common myths promoted by the radical right, from anti-semitic conspiracy theories to political correctness. Britain, as a liberal democracy, clearly has free speech. Yet, there is a distinction between people using free speech to express themselves and inciting hatred and violence to others. The latter is something which governments have every right to… Continue reading “Radical-right narratives and how to counter them”
It can be difficult to separate the alleged watchdogs of freedom from the bloodhounds of the populist radical-right discourse. On June 6, 2017, Sweden’s national holiday, charges were filed with the Swedish international prosecution office against “a number of individuals in key positions inside Sweden’s government administration, media and in the country’s political establishment” engaged… Continue reading “How the Swedish Radical Right Hijacked Human Rights”
What is behind the shift in norms around racism and the politics of immigration in recent decades? Although many are focused on the daily onslaught against norms under the current US president, from a broader perspective, norms around issues of race and the politics of immigration have clearly shifted since I began studying the radical… Continue reading “The Shifting Norms that Threaten Our Democracy”
Much has been written lately in regard to the electoral ‘rise’ of the populist radical right across European politics. Whilst it is true that the populist radical right has gained considerably in recent national parliamentary elections that span the refugee crisis (2015–2018) and outperformed centre left social democratic parties considerably. Much less attention has been… Continue reading “Beyond the Populist Radical Right: Centre Right Party Electoral Success on Immigration in the 21st Century”
On February 1st 2019 a workshop was organized by the Zentrum für zeithistorische Forschung (ZZF) (Centre for Contemporary History) in Potsdam, with Frank Bösch, Yves Müller, Dominik Rigoll, Sarah Schulz, Julia Kleinschmidt, Christoph Schulze, Anke Hoffstadt, Henrike Voigtländer and Sebastian Bischoff, to name only those present on stage. The purpose of this workshop with approximately… Continue reading “Conference Report: “Right-Wing Extremism as a research object in Contemporary History””
There is a certain irony of anti-European far-right groups in the UK utilizing and reproducing the promotion of French nationalism through the symbolic yellow vests. The so-called yellow vests, or the gilets jaunes — the original name given to the protesters adorned in high-visibility jackets who have been marching and rioting across France since November 2018 — have… Continue reading “Yellow Vests: The Irony of Transnational Nationalism”
In the May European elections, the immigration issue will continue to play a role in the expected success of radical right parties. The initial success of radical right parties such as the French Front National (FN) in the mid-1980s coincided with concerns about immigration flows into countries across Europe. Although the post-WWII guest-worker era had… Continue reading “The radical right, immigration and the future of the EU”
Belgium presents a “negative” case where the radical right has experienced a downward electoral spiral. The majority of recent research has focused on the rise of populist radical-right parties in contemporary European politics. Recent cases such as Italy (Northern League), Austria (The Freedom Party), Hungary (Fidesz), Germany (Alternative for Germany) and the Netherlands (The Party… Continue reading “Why Is the Far Right Losing Voters in Belgium?”