Extreme Right-Wing Parties in and Against Europe: A Systematizing Comparison

The paper analyses the systematics of extreme right wing parties in Europe based on a twelve-country comparison. With respect to terminology, in this context the case is made for maintaining the category for comparison of the “extreme right party family” and to comprehend those extreme right-wing parties that resort to populist strategies as one variant of right-wing extremism in Europe. Instead of understanding right-wing populism in isolation, it is argued that for a comparison of extreme right-wing parties in Europe, the focus should be shifted to two other dimensions: on the one hand, the relationship of the parties to the national socialist or fascist past and tradition, on the other hand, the concrete positioning of the parties with regard to Europe. Here, the aim is to direct attention to the dimension of political order favored by the parties, namely the relationship between racial political and spatial planning concepts in categories such as people, “race”, nation, Reich and particularly Europe.