The European Far-Right Phenomenon
By Francisco Gutierrez, University of Chicago
During the second half of the 20th century, European right-wing ideology was characterized in fairly simple terms, with right-wing political parties serving as the line of defense against global communism and the USSR. Perhaps the biggest proponents of the capitalist world order, these parties promoted a hawkish foreign policy, adherence to free trade policies, and trickle-down economic policies at all costs. Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Party in the 1980s served as the most notorious example of a Cold War right-wing political movement. However, a few decades into the era of neoliberal, capitalist dominance, a seismic shift has begun to occur in the European continent, with the established right making way for a new order of right-wing politics in the form of far-right populism. Once considered to be on the fringes of respectable political discourse, far-right populism has proven to be insurgent. While these groups so far have not taken power yet in many European countries such as Spain and France, they have steadily increased their vote shares and undeniably entered the public discourse. In this article, I will examine how far-right politics were able to enter the mainstream, provide examples of their recent successes and shortcomings, and assess the broader situation of European politics and the far-right going forward.
So what is happening? How did far-right ideology begin to take off in Europe? The rise of European far-right political ideology can be attributed to a reaction to the series of economic and cultural issues that began to plague the continent in the mid-2010s. Waves of immigration from the Middle East and Northern Africa due to political instability, terror attacks from Islamic Fundamentalist groups like ISIS, and general economic discontent fostered anxieties in the popular European imagination, which were easily fostered and captured by the far right. In their 2016 article titled “On The Rise: Europe’s Fringe Right,” Polyakova and Shekhovtsov outline the core tenets of European far-right ideologies: immigration, national sovereignty, and Euroskepticism (Polyakova and Shekhovtsov, 2016).[1] They note that, as a result of the global financial crisis in 2008, many European nations, such as Greece and Spain, suffered greatly due to German economic austerity policies, leading to a diminished belief in the centrist project of the European Union based on economic codependence as a means of helping European citizens (Polyakova and Shekhovtsov, 2016).[2] Furthermore, strife in the Middle East and Northern Africa created an influx of migrants that would disrupt the existing political, economic, and social institutions of these European nations. For example, Germany took in 1.1 million refugees from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan in the year 2015 (Donahue and Delfs, 2016).[3] Far-right parties framed the influx of new migrants championed by the European center-right and left as an attack on their national sovereignty, framing themselves “as defenders of ‘true’ European values against the encroachment of both non-European foreigners and the EU elite in Brussels” (Polyakova and Shekhovtsov, 2016).[4] Therefore, the growing distrust for traditional intellectual thought from powerful institutions such as the EU and skepticism of immigrants from majority-Muslim countries created the conditions for the European far-right to rise from relative obscurity.
This rise of far-right politics was not limited to any specific region of Europe, as every country has had to grapple with far-right ideologies and sentiments for the past decade. Occurrences such as the UK’s Brexit referendum, and rise of the Reform Party, and Giorgia Meloni’s ascension to the Italian premiership serve to highlight this phenomenon, but there is perhaps no greater example of the European far right’s trajectory to prominence than Marine Le Pen and the National Rally (renamed from the National Front) party in France. Under the leadership of her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, the far-right National Front did not establish itself as a fixture in French electoral politics apart from his landslide defeat in 2002 (where he only garnered 18 percent of the vote). Therefore, while present as a party, the National Front by no means exerted the level of influence on French culture and politics as Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party presently does. Furthermore, his movement was considered too overtly fascist-sympathizing, as demonstrated by his expulsion from the party by his own daughter in 2015 for his comments questioning the occurrence and extent of the Holocaust (“French National Front…”, 2015).[5] Through measures such as these, Marine Le Pen has slightly sanitized the party of its most hateful and heinous elements. But, the bigger transformation that occurred in French politics was amongst the electorate: while her father won only 18% of the vote in 2002, Le Pen garnered 17%, 31%, and 43% in the presidential elections of 2012, 2017, and 2022 respectively. This shift in support to the National Rally, coupled with another potential run for president in 2027, has cemented Le Pen, and by extension, the far right, as a spectre looming over French politics for the foreseeable future.
So, what is the importance of the National Rally’s rise? In the 2024 legislative elections that they expected to win, the party gained 53 seats in the National Assembly and was only kept out of leadership by a consolidation of left and center-left parties named the New Popular Front. Thus, the National Rally will continue to pressure Macron and the parties of the New Popular Front from the right on issues such as immigration and national sovereignty. Despite its minor setbacks in the National Assembly, the National Rally can exert its most influence in the short term in the EU parliament, where the party gained the most seats in the parliament during the 2024 elections. In their posts in the EU Parliament, these members of the National Rally Party may be expected to question the purpose of the institution, propose hardline immigration policies, and cozy up to Russia through, as demonstrated by their leader Le Pen’s documented connections with the country.
The consequences of a potential Le Pen presidency are sure to be massive. While she has expressed a desire to curtail monetary aid to Ukraine, it is not inconceivable that, as president, she would seek to promote a peace deal that grants major swaths of Ukraine's territory to Russia, thereby granting Putin total victory. Futàk-Campbell notes her attendance at events with high-ranking Russian officials and reception of funds from Putin-backed institutions, in addition to her legitimization of Putin’s 2014 invasion of Crimea, further forming the growing alliance between far-right populists and the ultra-conservative Putin administration in Russia (Futàk-Campbell, 2020).[6] However, while presenting the potential paths to power for the far-right within the EU Parliament, Singam also notes the potential guardrails to their newfound influence: “The set-up of the EU Parliament, with an independent EU Council helming it, also makes it harder for a far-right takeover of the institution. Also, some centrist and left parties have formed a firewall to not work with the far-right parties” (Singam, 2024).[7]
Given the current global political climate, it is easy to see the far right’s path to power in Europe's most powerful countries. Amidst a wave of economic discontent and intense social and cultural divisions permeating all levels of society, the moment appears ripe for far-right demagoguery to take hold, with the reelection of Donald Trump in the United States certainly serving as a jolt in the arm to these movements. Despite all of this, I do not believe that global far-right domination (or even authoritarian fascism when considering the most extreme elements of the far-right) is an inevitability. For example, the Law and Justice Party in Poland, which governed from 2015 to 2023, instituted a series of de-liberalizing initiatives from the establishment of LGBT-free zones that banned free assembly, such as parades, to taking control over media networks, to attempts to supersede EU law (“A New Start For Poland,” 2023).[8] Despite the onslaught of far-right rhetoric and policies such as the demonization and restriction of immigrants, Poland endured the myriad of threats posed by the Law and Justice Party and sought a new vision for the country in 2023, selecting Donald Tusk and his Civic Coalition to govern. Therefore, while the coming years and decades will be a particularly contentious time as the insurgent far-right seeks power in Europe, nothing is set in stone in the continent. Though, in order to stem the rise of far-right populism, traditional political parties, regional unions like the EU, and economic institutions alike will have to be able to adjust to a changing landscape, appeal to voters in new and innovative ways, and successfully convey the significant ramifications posed by the success far-right parties.
[1]Polyakova, Alina, and Anton Shekhovtsov. “ON THE RISE: Europe’s Fringe Right.”
[2] Polyakova, Alina, and Anton Shekhovtsov. “ON THE RISE: Europe’s Fringe Right.”
[3]Donahue, Patrick, and Arne Delfs. “Germany Saw 1.1 Million Migrants in 2015 as Debate Intensifies.”
[4]Polyakova, Alina, and Anton Shekhovtsov. “ON THE RISE: Europe’s Fringe Right.”
[5]“French National Front Expels Founder Jean-Marie Le Pen.” BBC News
[6]Futàk-Campbell, Beatrix. “Political Synergy: How the European Far-Right and Russia Have Joined Forces Against Brussels.”
[7]Singam, Kalicharan Veera. “2024 Elections in the West: Are They Helping the Extreme Right?”
[8]“A New Start for Poland.” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Works Cited:
“A New Start for Poland.” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 17 Oct. 2023, carnegieendowment.org/europe/strategic-europe/2023/10/a-new-start-for-poland?lang=.
Donahue, Patrick, and Arne Delfs. “Germany Saw 1.1 Million Migrants in 2015 as Debate Intensifies.” Bloomberg.Com, Bloomberg, 6 Jan. 2016, www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-06/germany-says-about-1-1-million-asylum-seekers-arrived-in-2015.
“French National Front Expels Founder Jean-Marie Le Pen.” BBC News, BBC, 20 Aug. 2015, www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34009901.
Futàk-Campbell, Beatrix. “Political Synergy: How the European Far-Right and Russia Have Joined Forces Against Brussels.” Atlantisch Perspectief 44, no. 1 (2020): 30–35. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48600543.
Gall, Lydia. “Polish Government Ups Anti-Migrant Rhetoric Ahead of Elections.” Human Rights Watch, 6 Oct. 2023, www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/06/polish-government-ups-anti-migrant-rhetoric-ahead-elections.
Polyakova, Alina, and Anton Shekhovtsov. “ON THE RISE: Europe’s Fringe Right.” World Affairs 179, no. 1 (2016): 70–80. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26369498.
Singam, Kalicharan Veera. “2024 Elections in the West: Are They Helping the Extreme Right?” Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses 16, no. 3 (2024): 31–36. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48778664.
