The Populist Radical Right in Europe a Xenophobic Voice in the Economic and Social Crisis

Populist radical right parties seem to have gained a foothold in European societies. They point to problems linked to social exclusion and urban segregation, to cultural differences, to the transformation of the nation state and to the crisis of political representation. Within a new economic and cultural cleavage-polarization between, on the one hand, “open” European and global and, on the other hand, “closed” and protectionist positions, these parties combine nationalistic and racist positions with protectionist and ethnicized class politics, and mobilize their electorate furthermore with Euroscepticism and populist criticism of political elites. Based on the hypothesis that the success of these parties is linked to the new cleavage structure in European party systems, this paper shows the European similarities in discourse and electorate of the radical right and demonstrates its populist dynamics in case studies (France, Finland, and Hungary).