HUNGARY

Party: Fidesz

Leader: Viktor Orbán

Type leader: Autocrat

% National Vote:  Fidesz won 54% of the popular vote in Hungary’s last parliamentary elections (2022), providing the party with a supermajority of 135 of 199 seats in the General Assembly – enough votes to form a government without needing a coalition with minority parties. 

Position in Government: Fidesz has ruled Hungary since 2010, with Orbán as a strongman leader; the party also holds the prime ministership and represents the majority in Hungary’s parliament. Platform: Arch-conservative and nationalist, traditional Catholic values, anti-immigration (strong borders), national sovereignty, anti-LGBTQIA+, anti-reproductive rights, anti-diversity policies.

European Parliament:  With 52.5% of the vote, Fidesz won 11 of 21 of Hungary’s seats in the 2022 European legislative elections, and joined the Patriots for Europe (PfE) coalition of far-right EU parties.

AUSTRIA

Party: Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) 

Leader:  Herbert Kickl

Type leader: Kickl has led the party since 2021

% National Vote: The FPÖ won 16% of the popular vote in Austria’s last parliamentary election in 2019, down 10% from its 2017 election total (26%). [The 2019 winner was the ruling conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), currently led by Karl Nehammer, Austrian chancellor. ÖVP won 37.5% in Austria’s last elections in September 2019; it formed a government with the Green party, (Die Grünen).] The next election is scheduled for 29 September 2024. 

Position in Government: The Freedom Party was a member of Austria’s coalition government until May 2019, when a political scandal broke the coalition apart.

Platform: FPÖ advocates for stricter immigration controls, greater Austrian sovereignty, Euroscepticism, and a focus on nationalist interests.

European Parliament: The FPÖ won 25% of the vote and 6 of 20 Austrian seats in the 2024 European legislative elections and subsequently joined the far-right Patriots for Europe coalition.

POLAND

Party: Law and Justice (PiS) 

Leader: Jarosław Kaczyński

Type leader: Kaczyński is a devout Catholic and was considered an autocrat by critics when he was in power. Opponents pointed to policies that weakened Poland’s rule of law and the independence of the judiciary and his clampdowns on the press and free speech, as clear evidence of his authoritarianism. His Catholicism influences his arch-conservative views on social issues. He has been very outspoken against LGTBQIA+ rights, abortion and gender equality, and his rhetoric is viewed as extremely homophobic by Polish gay groups. His opposition to EU policies on migration and democratic standards have been denounced by European democratic leaders.

% National Vote: In 2019, PiS wont 43.6% of the popular vote, giving it enough to rule by majority. However, in the most recent legislative elections in October 2023, PiS won only 35% of the vote, and opposition parties ousted PiS and formed a governing coalition led by Former Prime Minister Donald Tusk of the center/center-right Civic Platform party. (Tusk is also a former President of the European Council.)

Position in Government: From 2015 to 2023, PiS was the ruling party and held the Polish presidency, prime ministership, and a majority in the parliament. PiS currently holds no key government positions and is being investigated by the ruling coalition for alleged abuses of power during its administration.  

Platform: PiS is known for its illiberal and nationalist agenda, including attempts to gain total control of the judiciary and weaken freedom of expression, as well as rhetoric around traditional values, social welfare, Euroscepticism, and national sovereignty. 

European Parliament: With 36% of the vote, PiS won a close second the 2024 European legislative elections and joined the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists coalition (ECR) (i.e., with Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy).

ITALY

Party: Lega per Salvini Premier / Lega / League (formerly Northern League)  

Leader: Matteo Salvini 

Type leader: Salvini is viewed by progressive critics as a populist authoritarian leader known for his hardline and confrontational approach to immigration and border control, including calling for law enforcement crackdowns on undocumented asylum seekers and other immigrants. He is viewed by critics as xenophobic and racist toward North Africans, who see his rhetoric as divisive and incendiary. His opposition to an independent judiciary and his attacks on judges contribute to a view of Salvini as an autocrat.

% National Vote: Lega became a major political party in the March 2018 election, with 17.4% of the popular vote. However, in the most recent general election in 2022, which elevated right-wing rival Giorgia Meloni to Prime Minister, Lega received only 9% of the vote. 

Position in Government: Since 2022, Salvini has been serving as a Deputy Prime Minister of Italy (along with Antonio Tajani, leader of Forza Italia). Lega representatives have been members of several coalition governments in Italy, including Meloni’s current coalition government.  

Platform: Lega is known especially for its anti-immigration, Eurosceptic position, advocating for much stricter immigration policies and greater regional autonomy. 

European Parliament: Lega won 9% of the Italian vote in the 2024 European legislative elections (down from 34% in 2019) and joined the new right-wing Patriots for Europe alliance.

ITALY

Party: Fratelli d’Italia (FdI) (Brothers of Italy) 

Leader: Giorgia Meloni 

Type leader: Meloni is right-wing populist with political roots in Italian fascism (she is a former member of the neo-fascist Youth Front, founded in 1946). Since becoming Prime Minister, she has aligned with EU/USA efforts to defend and support Ukraine, thus inverting her prior pro-Russia position to take a new, firm Atlanticist stance. This has led some international and Western press to see her as having softened her extremism. She is opposed by progressives in Italy for her hard right immigration policy, for attempts to control and censor public media content, and for her anti-gay views and policies.  

% National Vote: FdI won 44% of the national vote in the 2022 Italian general election.

Position in Government: Meloni is the current prime minister of Italy and leader of a coalition government that includes Salvini’s Lega. 

Platform: Anti-immigrant (under Meloni, Italy regularly impounds medical humanitarian ships that save African migrants from drowning in the Mediterranean Sea), anti-LGBTQIA+, pro-EU reform (Italy is the largest recipient of the EU Covid-related economic stimulus package). 

European Parliament: In the 2024 EU parliamentary elections, FdI won 28.8% of the national vote, taking 24 of 76 Italian seats. Meloni is the leader of the right-wing EU coalition European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), which FDI dominates; it includes Poland’s PiS. The ECR currently holds 78/720 seats in the EU parliament.

FRANCE

Party: National Rally/Rassemblement National (RN) (formerly National Front, 1972 to 2018)

Parliamentary Party Leader: Marine Le Pen

President: Jordan Bardella

Leader Type: Le Pen is a nationalist populist who has had considerable success at softening and rebranding the party’s fascist image over the last decade, while retaining the RN’s core hard-right, working class-focused ideology, winning over even many former Communists in the process. Her recent choice of the young, charismatic, and social media-savvy Jordan Bardella as deputy leader has inspired the enthusiastic support of many French youth and helped bring the party from the margins to the mainstream. 

% National Vote: Le Pen received 40% of the national vote in the second-round runoff of the 2022 presidential election, losing to Emmanuel Macron. In early March 2024, Le Pen led President Macron by 13 points in national opinion surveys looking ahead to the next French presidential election in 2027. The RN took 32% of the vote in the second round of the 2024 French legislative elections. 

Position in Government: The RN has never been part of a French national government, nor secured the presidency or prime ministership. Party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen reached the second round of the presidential elections in 2002; Marine did the same in 2017 and 2022. Despite repeatedly being denied victory in second (final) round voting over several decades, the party has steadily gained in power in both the National Assembly and European Parliament. In 2024, the RN gained a decisive first-round victory in the June-July legislative elections and was widely expected to finally take power. But Macron held snap elections, and French voters rallied to deny the RN a second-round parliamentary victory, despite RN dominating with 32% of the total vote. The last-minute shutdown of the populist far-right was due to a strategic ballot move by centrist and leftist parties who united to form The New Popular Front (Nouveau Front Populaire) and won the most seats in France’s National Assembly, followed by Macron’s centrist Renaissance alliance, then Le Pen’s RN. The RN currently holds 125/577 seats in the French parliament. 

Platform: National sovereignty, anti-Islam, traditional French values, economic protection of workers, and anti-immigration policies including calling for big cuts in legal immigration, and stricter control of illegal immigration. It opposes French military action in Africa, and today supports EU reform, after many years of anti-EU rhetoric. The party’s roots go back to associates of the fascist Vichy regime during WWII. The party was founded by Marine Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie, long criticized as a Holocaust denier, antisemite, and Islamophobe.

European Parliament: Following strong results in the 2024 European legislative elections (31% of French voters, taking 30 of 81 French EP seats), Bardella was tapped to be the president of the Patriots for Europe coalition of far-right parties, reflecting the RN’s growing power in the EU.

GERMANY

Party: Alternative for Germany (AfD) 

Leader: Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel (co-leaders); also Björn Höcke, AfD leader in Thuringia.

Type Leader: Different AfD leaders represent the party at federal and state levels.  The AfD is branded a tacit Nazi party by left critics who say it courts neo-Nazi votes and alliances and espouses violence toward immigrants, particularly Muslims. Accordingly, the AfD has seen openly neo-Nazi groups support its public rallies, and there have been associated attacks on immigrants. The shocking leaked revelations in January of a secret meeting between AfD and neo-Nazi leaders (see earlier discussion) resurfaced public fears of Nazi influence on the AfDTwo separate trials of AfD leader Björn Höcke over his use of a Nazi slogan has done little to allay public concerns about the AfD’s leadership and supporters.

% National Vote: The AfD received 10.4% of the popular vote in the September 2021 national election, securing them 83 seats in the Bundestag, Germany’s federal parliament. (The winner was the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), led by Olaf Scholz, with 25.7% of the vote, gaining 206 Bundestag seats. Scholz became Chancellor of a coalition SPD-Freedom Democratic Party (FPD), and Green party government.) In September 2024 state elections, the AfD won the eastern state of Thuringia with 32.8% of the vote, and came in a close second in Saxony with almost 30.6%. The win in Thuringia, where Höcke is state party leader, marks the first time a far-right party has won a state election in Germany since WWII.  

Platform: AfD is known for its Eurosceptic and anti-immigration policies, emphasizing German identity, and criticism of Islam. 

European Parliament: The AfD won 15.9% of the German vote in the 2024 European legislative elections, edging out Scholz’s SPD and taking second place in Germany behind a center-right coalition (CDU/CSU), along with 15/96 German EP seats. Prior to the election, the AfD were expelled from Le Pen-Orbán’s EU coalition of far-right identitarian parties, now regrouped into Patriots for Europe (PfE). Instead, the AfD founded a very small—perhaps even more extreme—far-right coalition called Europe of Sovereign Nations (also called the Sovereigntists). Other members include smaller parties from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, and Slovakia.

SPAIN

Party: Vox 

Leader: Santiago Abascal

Type Leader: Abascal is viewed as a fiery, charismatic populist leader by supporters, one who reveres traditional Catholic Spanish values while rejecting the identity and separatism of Catalan and Basque nationalisms. Abascal is seen as a hardline Catholic and arch-conservative populist who staunchly opposes liberal social ideologies, including "political correctness.” Critics accuse him of xenophobia and divisionism.

% National Vote: In the September 2019 election, Vox gained success, winning 15.1% of the popular vote. In the July 2023 Spanish general election, Vox received 12.4% of the vote, gaining 33 of 350 seats in the national parliament. 

European Parliament: In the 2024 European legislative elections, Vox took 9.6% of the vote, for 6 out of 61 Spanish seats. Vox is a member of the new Patriots for Europe coalition of far-right EU parties.

SWITZERLAND (non-EU)

Party: Swiss People's Party / Union Democratique du Centre (SVP/UDC)  

Leader: Albert Rösti (President) and Marco Chiesa (Group leader)

Type leader: The Swiss political system is a federalist model. The co-leaders and party support strong executive branch powers. Both Rösti and Chiesa are criticized by opponents for their strong opposition to immigration and asylum and their promotion of a narrow, exclusionary view of Swiss identity that has been branded racist, while promoting white European culture and opposing multiculturalism in Swiss society.

% National Vote: In October 2023 federal elections, SVP/UDC came in first overall with 27.9% of the national vote (with only 46% of eligible Swiss voters participating). SVP/UDC currently holds a plurality of 62 of 200 seats in the lower chamber of Parliament, the National Council, up from 53 after the 2019 elections, and six seats in the 46-seat upper chamber Council of States, representing cantons that make up Switzerland.   

Position in Government: SVP/UDC is currently the largest party in the Federal Assembly and holds 2 of 7 seats on the Federal Council (i.e., the collective head of state and government). 

Platform: SVP is known for its anti-immigration policies, strong Euroscepticism, and an emphasis on Swiss sovereignty and Swiss identity. 

European Parliament: The SVP/UDC and Switzerland are not members of the European Union, but the Swiss People’s Party has matched the EU’s economic sanctions on Russia following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

NETHERLANDS

Party: Party for Freedom / Partij voor de Vrijheid) (PVV)

Leader: Geert Wilders 

Type Leader: The Netherlands is a constitutional parliamentary monarchy, with a monarch as head of state but power vested in the Prime Minister and government. PVV populist Wilders is viewed as an extremist and racist by his opponents for his divisive, inflammatory rhetoric, especially his denunciations of immigration, Islam, and multiculturalism. Opponents contend his views and positions undermine democratic values and institutions and are socially divisive.

% National Vote: In July 2023 general election, PVV led all parties with 23.5% of the vote, taking 37 of 150 seats in the House of Representatives. 

Position in Government: Following its victory in the 2023 election, the PVV is a member of the current coalition government, an eclectic mix of parties. Wilders was denied the premiership due to sufficient opposition but remains one of the most influential politicians in parliament. 

Platform: Anti-immigration (close Dutch borders), anti-Islam (ban the Koran) nationalism, national sovereignty, Euroscepticism, and conservative social policies.

European Parliament: In the June 2024 European legislative elections, PVV won 17% of the Dutch vote, for 6 of the Netherland’s 31 seats in the EP. Following the election, PVV joined the new Patriots for Europe coalition of far-right EU parties.

SWEDEN

Party: Sweden Democrats (SD); Young Swedes SDU youth wing; SD-Women

Leader: Jimmie Åkesson

Type Leader: Åkesson is an author and politician who has led the SD since 2004 and, like Marine Le Pen in France, worked to soften his party’s early neo-fascist image: the right-wing populist SD was founded in 1988 by Swedish pro-Nazi and fascists groups. While Åkesson and his party have since adopted more moderate positions, prominent xenophobic members like Björn Söder defy that image, cause some critics to view the SD as hardline right, despite its official platform.

% National Vote: The Sweden Democrats are the second-largest party in the Riksdag, or 349-member unicameral Swedish Parliament, and, as of the last national election in 2022, the largest member of the right-wing bloc. 

Position in Government:  Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson is leader of the Moderate Party, a minority government that relies on the SD to govern. In the last election, the SD won 62 seats, or 17.5% of the vote; the Moderates won 70 seats (19.8%) and the Social Democrats held the majority, with 100 seats (28.3%).  It is also affiliated with the Danish far-right party, Northern Freedom (Nordisk Frihet), and sits on the inter-parliamentary Nordic Council with Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Norway, and autonomous areas Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Åland. 

Platform: Under Akesson’s leadership, the fast-growing SD began a public effort since 2005 to expel hardline members and to moderate its platform–withmixed results. It officially rejects fascism and states a “zero tolerance policy” toward “extremists,” “lawbreakers,” and “racists.” It remains nativist, populist, anti-immigrant, opposed to multiculturalism, and Euroskeptic, opposing further European integration and pushing for Sweden to have an exit strategy from the EU. While it supports Sweden’s welfare system, it opposes support for non-Swedes and permanent residents—an attack on immigrants and multiculturalism.  The SD adopts a more tolerant social policy position than other right-wing groups: it supports same-sex marriage and gay civil unions, and gender-affirming surgery, while advocating a traditional family values agenda.

That said, the SD has failed to silence prominent extremist voices like Björn Söder, the ex-SD party secretary for a decade. Söder has espoused anti-Semitic statements, as well as racist and anti-Muslim rhetoric, challenging the identity and inclusion of Jews and indigenous Sami people as real Swedes; both groups are legally recognized as two of Sweden’s five national minorities. He’s made anti-gay statements linking homosexuality to pedophilia, and anti-Green statements. 

European Parliament: In the 2024 European elections, the Sweden Democrats won 13.2% of votes, holding onto 3 of the 21 Swedish seats in Brussels. The SD is a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) coalition, along with Meloni’s Brothers of Italy and Poland’s PiS.