A Right‐wing Populist Momentum? A Review of 2017 Elections Across Europe

Abstract

Right-wing populist parties competed in most electoral contests that took place in Europe in 2017, often as main contenders for power. This article reviews the results of electoral contests that took place in 2017 in France, Norway, Bulgaria, the UK, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic, and examines them in comparative perspective. An analysis, which takes into account important variations both across countries and across time, indicates that: (1) What we term ‘right-wing populist’ parties are in fact a range of parties that differ fundamentally in terms of their rhetoric and programmatic agendas; (2) the rise of such parties is not a new phenomenon, and the 2017 election results should be interpreted as part of a broader trend that commenced in the mid 1980s; (3) While not new, this phenomenon does pose new challenges. These are linked to supply-side dynamics as in most Western European countries, the parties that are increasingly enjoying the most success are those that are attempting to distance themselves from fascism, ‘speak’ the language of democracy, and stress ‘liberal values’ to justify their exclusionary agendas; and (4) the results from Eastern Europe are more mixed, pointing to a different pattern.

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