The rise and limits of populist parties and movements in Europe

Résumé du document

Any success of a populist party is often considered as a threat, a rise endangering Democracy. Even if there is a lot of passion over this issue, it is true that there has been a rise of populist parties in Europe, from the 1980s to late 1990s, a rise which has stabilized or reversed recently. These new populist parties appeared after the great period of stability (from the post war to the late 1960s), a period in which most extremist parties were small groups or party flashes. Since then, there are new populist parties. It is funded on a direct link between the leader and the people and a distinction between 'us' and 'them'.

Extraits

[...] This is true for Alleanza Nazionale of the voters are men), the Norwegian Progress Party the FPÖ the Vlaams Blok the FN The generational gap is more complex: there is a shift in the beginning of the 1990s with the coming of lots of young people. The FPÖ made 35% in 1999 among the voters under 30. In 2002 in France, the first party of the young was abstention, and then was the FN. Vlaams Blok used to have a strong basis among the young. But there is a general trend for equilibrium, and nowadays the populist phenomenon is more inter generational. [...]

[...] A huge majority of extreme right voters in Europe consider that “there are too much immigrants”, even if it is not always their first issue (the PP in Norway was during the 90s a single issue party, owning “immigration”, but has evolved since). The second cultural clash is the one of post materialist societies (Inglehart). Post materialists deemphasize materialist goals (growth, stability, order) to commit in environmental, women's or peace movements for instance. And they are more likely to be leftist. If young people are more post materialist (which does not fit perfectly with our figurer concerning their votes) and do not get materialist with age, it would mean that populist parties would disappear in a long term. [...]

[...] Conclusion Populism in Europe is a complex movement which had the particularity to rise during the same period (beyond national specificities). There is not one extreme right in Europe but links can be drawn between our post industrial and post materialist parties. All those parties have quite the same voters and ideas, and grow on political disenchantment. Their future may be diverse as they are evolving either to normalization or to marginalization, but in most countries in Europe there is a strong core of people believing in these parties. [...]

[...] Why can we speak of a rise of populist and extreme right movements in Europe? In all Western Europe, elections since the beginning of the 1980s have shown a rise of populist and extreme right parties. In five countries these parties were associated to the government: Law & Justice (dominant) and Self-Defence ruling Poland since 2005; FPÖ in Austria (1999); Alleanza Nazionale and Lega Nord associated to S. Berlusconi's Forza Italia; Ljist Pim Fortuyn which was associated to a coalition in Netherlands (2002), as the SVP in Switzerland (2003). [...]

[...] But of course only in the country listed at first a real risk exist, or is already happened, for such party to be part of the government. But can we speak of a European Extreme Right? We should first try to define it and show the links and differences between them. B. What are the new extreme right parties? Those parties are rather new comparing to the extreme right of the post WWII, nostalgic of fascism or Nazism, or very traditional and which did not last. [...]