
Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by
ultraconservatism,
authoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in democracy, separation of powers, civil liberties, and ...
,
ultranationalism
Ultranationalism, or extreme nationalism, is an extremist form of nationalism in which a country asserts or maintains hegemony, supremacy, or other forms of control over other nations (usually through violent coercion) to pursue its specific i ...
, and
nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the
right
Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...
, distinguished from more mainstream right-wing ideologies by its opposition to
liberal democratic
Liberal democracy, also called Western-style democracy, or substantive democracy, is a form of government that combines the organization of a democracy with ideas of liberal political philosophy. Common elements within a liberal democracy are: ...
norms and emphasis on
exclusivist views. Far-right ideologies have historically included
fascism
Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...
,
Nazism
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...
, and
Falangism
Falangism () was the political ideology of three political parties in Spain that were known as the Falange, namely first the Falange Española, the Falange Española de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista (FE de las JONS), and afterwa ...
, while contemporary manifestations also incorporate
neo-fascism
Neo-fascism is a post-World War II far-right ideology which includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, ultraconservatism, racial supremacy, right-wing populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xe ...
,
neo-Nazism
Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
,
white supremacy
White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine ...
, and various other movements characterized by
chauvinism
Chauvinism ( ) is the unreasonable belief in the superiority or dominance of one's own group or people, who are seen as strong and virtuous, while others are considered weak, unworthy, or inferior. The ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'' describes it ...
,
xenophobia
Xenophobia (from (), 'strange, foreign, or alien', and (), 'fear') is the fear or dislike of anything that is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression that is based on the perception that a conflict exists between an in-gr ...
, and
theocratic
Theocracy is a form of autocracy or oligarchy in which one or more deities are recognized as supreme ruling authorities, giving divine guidance to human intermediaries, with executive and legislative power, who manage the government's daily a ...
or
reactionary
In politics, a reactionary is a person who favors a return to a previous state of society which they believe possessed positive characteristics absent from contemporary.''The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought'' Third Edition, (1999) p. 729. ...
beliefs.
Key to the far-right worldview is the notion of societal purity, often invoking ideas of a homogeneous "national" or "ethnic" community. This view generally promotes
organicism
Organicism is the philosophical position that states that the universe and its various parts (including human societies) ought to be considered alive and naturally ordered, much like a living organism.Gilbert, S. F., and S. Sarkar. 2000. "Emb ...
, which perceives society as a unified, natural entity under threat from
diversity
Diversity, diversify, or diverse may refer to:
Business
*Diversity (business), the inclusion of people of different identities (ethnicity, gender, age) in the workforce
*Diversity marketing, marketing communication targeting diverse customers
* ...
or modern
pluralism. Far-right movements frequently target perceived threats to their idealized community, whether ethnic, religious, or cultural, leading to
anti-immigrant sentiment
Opposition to immigration, also known as anti-immigration, is a political position that seeks to restrict immigration. In the modern sense, immigration refers to the entry of people from one state or territory into another state or territory in ...
s,
welfare chauvinism
Welfare chauvinism or welfare state nationalism is the political notion that welfare benefits should be restricted to certain groups, particularly to the natives of a country as opposed to immigrants, or should be for the majority, excluding ...
, and, in extreme cases, political violence or oppression. According to political theorists, the far right appeals to those who believe in maintaining strict cultural and ethnic divisions and a return to traditional social hierarchies and values.
In practice, far-right movements differ widely by region and historical context. In Western Europe, they have often focused on anti-immigration and
anti-globalism, while in Eastern Europe, strong
anti-communist
Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when th ...
rhetoric is more common. The United States has seen a unique evolution of far-right movements that emphasize nativism and radical opposition to central government.
Far-right politics have led to
oppression
Oppression is malicious or unjust treatment of, or exercise of power over, a group of individuals, often in the form of governmental authority. Oppression may be overt or covert, depending on how it is practiced.
No universally accepted model ...
,
political violence
Political violence is violence which is perpetrated in order to achieve political goals. It can include violence which is used by a State (polity), state against other states (war), violence which is used by a state against civilians and non-st ...
,
forced assimilation
Forced assimilation is the involuntary cultural assimilation of religious or ethnic minority groups, during which they are forced by a government to adopt the language, national identity, norms, mores, customs, traditions, values, mentality ...
,
ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, or religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making the society ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal such as deportation or population transfer, it ...
, and
genocide
Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...
against groups of people based on their supposed inferiority or their perceived threat to the native
ethnic group
An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, re ...
,
nation
A nation is a type of social organization where a collective Identity (social science), identity, a national identity, has emerged from a combination of shared features across a given population, such as language, history, ethnicity, culture, t ...
,
state
State most commonly refers to:
* State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory
**Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country
**Nation state, a ...
,
national religion,
dominant culture
A dominant culture is a cultural practice that is dominant within a particular political, social or economic entity, in which multiple cultures co-exist. It may refer to a language, religion or ritual practices, social value and/or social ...
, or
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
social institutions. Across these contexts, far-right politics has continued to influence discourse, occasionally achieving electoral success and prompting significant debate over its place in
democratic societies.
Overview
Concept and worldview

According to scholars
Jean-Yves Camus and
Nicolas Lebourg
Nicolas Lebourg (born 1974) is a French historian who specializes on far-right movements in Europe.
Biography
Born in 1974, Lebourg studied sociology at Aix-Marseille University and history at the University of Perpignan, from which he graduate ...
, the core of the far right's worldview is
organicism
Organicism is the philosophical position that states that the universe and its various parts (including human societies) ought to be considered alive and naturally ordered, much like a living organism.Gilbert, S. F., and S. Sarkar. 2000. "Emb ...
, the idea that society functions as a complete, organized and homogeneous living being. Adapted to the community they wish to constitute or reconstitute (whether based on ethnicity, nationality, religion or race), the concept leads them to reject every form of
universalism
Universalism is the philosophical and theological concept within Christianity that some ideas have universal application or applicability.
A belief in one fundamental truth is another important tenet in universalism. The living truth is se ...
in favor of ''
autophilia'' and ''alterophobia'', or in other words the idealization of a "we" excluding a "they". The far right tends to absolutize differences between nations, races, individuals or cultures since they disrupt their efforts towards the
utopia
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', which describes a fictiona ...
n dream of the "closed" and naturally organized society, perceived as the condition to ensure the rebirth of a community finally reconnected to its quasi-eternal nature and re-established on firm
metaphysical
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of h ...
foundations.
As they view their community in a state of decay facilitated by the ruling elites, far-right members portray themselves as a natural, sane and alternative elite, with the redemptive mission of saving society from its promised doom. They reject both their national political system and the global geopolitical order (including their institutions and values, e.g.
political liberalism
Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, the right to private property, and equality before the law. Liberals espouse various and often mut ...
and
egalitarian
Egalitarianism (; also equalitarianism) is a school of thought within political philosophy that builds on the concept of social equality, prioritizing it for all people. Egalitarian doctrines are generally characterized by the idea that all h ...
humanism
Humanism is a philosophy, philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and Agency (philosophy), agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The me ...
) which are presented as needing to be abandoned or purged of their impurities, so that the "redemptive community" can eventually leave the current phase of
liminal crisis to usher in the new era. The community itself is idealized through great
archetypal
The concept of an archetype ( ) appears in areas relating to behavior, History of psychology#Emergence of German experimental psychology, historical psychology, philosophy and literary analysis.
An archetype can be any of the following:
# a stat ...
figures (the
Golden Age
The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the ''Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages of Man, Ages, Gold being the first and the one during wh ...
, the savior,
decadence
Decadence was a late-19th-century movement emphasizing the need for sensationalism, egocentricity, and bizarre, artificial, perverse, and exotic sensations and experiences. By extension, it may refer to a decline in art, literature, science, ...
and global
conspiracy theories
A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources:
*
...
) as they glorify
non-rationalistic and non-
materialistic values such as the youth or the cult of the dead.
Political scientist
Cas Mudde
Cas Mudde (born 3 June 1967) is a Dutch political science, political scientist who focuses on Extremism, political extremism and populism in Europe and the United States. His research includes the areas of political parties, extremism, democracy, ...
argues that the far right can be viewed as a combination of four broadly defined concepts, namely
exclusivism
Exclusivism is the practice of being :wikt:exclusive, exclusive, a mentality characterized by the disregard for opinions and ideas which are different from one's own, or the practice of organizing entities into groups by excluding those entities wh ...
(e.g.
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...
,
xenophobia
Xenophobia (from (), 'strange, foreign, or alien', and (), 'fear') is the fear or dislike of anything that is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression that is based on the perception that a conflict exists between an in-gr ...
,
ethnocentrism
Ethnocentrism in social science and anthropology—as well as in colloquial English discourse—means to apply one's own culture or ethnicity as a frame of reference to judge other cultures, practices, behaviors, beliefs, and people, instead o ...
,
ethnopluralism,
chauvinism
Chauvinism ( ) is the unreasonable belief in the superiority or dominance of one's own group or people, who are seen as strong and virtuous, while others are considered weak, unworthy, or inferior. The ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'' describes it ...
, including
welfare chauvinism
Welfare chauvinism or welfare state nationalism is the political notion that welfare benefits should be restricted to certain groups, particularly to the natives of a country as opposed to immigrants, or should be for the majority, excluding ...
),
anti-democratic and non-individualist traits (e.g.
cult of personality
A cult of personality, or a cult of the leader,Cas Mudde, Mudde, Cas and Kaltwasser, Cristóbal Rovira (2017) ''Populism: A Very Short Introduction''. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 63. is the result of an effort which is made to create ...
,
hierarchism,
monism
Monism attributes oneness or singleness () to a concept, such as to existence. Various kinds of monism can be distinguished:
* Priority monism states that all existing things go back to a source that is distinct from them; e.g., in Neoplatonis ...
,
populism
Populism is a essentially contested concept, contested concept used to refer to a variety of political stances that emphasize the idea of the "common people" and often position this group in opposition to a perceived elite. It is frequently a ...
,
anti-particracy, an
organicist
Organicism is the philosophical position that states that the universe and its various parts (including human societies) ought to be considered alive and naturally ordered, much like a living organism.Gilbert, S. F., and S. Sarkar. 2000. "Embra ...
view of the state), a
traditionalist value system lamenting the disappearance of historic frames of reference (e.g.
law and order, the family, the ethnic, linguistic and religious community and nation as well as the
natural environment
The natural environment or natural world encompasses all life, biotic and abiotic component, abiotic things occurring nature, naturally, meaning in this case not artificiality, artificial. The term is most often applied to Earth or some parts ...
) and a socioeconomic program associating
corporatism
Corporatism is an ideology and political system of interest representation and policymaking whereby Corporate group (sociology), corporate groups, such as agricultural, labour, military, business, scientific, or guild associations, come toget ...
, state control of certain sectors,
agrarianism
Agrarianism is a social philosophy, social and political philosophy that advocates for rural development, a Rural area, rural agricultural lifestyle, family farming, widespread property ownership, and political decentralization. Those who adhere ...
, and a varying degree of belief in the free play of
socially Darwinistic market forces. Mudde then proposes a subdivision of the far-right nebula into moderate and radical leanings, according to their degree of exclusionism and
essentialism
Essentialism is the view that objects have a set of attributes that are necessary to their Identity (philosophy), identity. In early Western thought, Platonic idealism held that all things have such an "essence"—an Theory of forms, "idea" or "f ...
.
Definition and comparative analysis
The ''Encyclopedia of Politics: The Left and the Right'' states that far-right politics include "persons or groups who hold extreme nationalist, xenophobic, homophobic, racist, religious fundamentalist, or other reactionary views." While the term ''far right'' is typically applied to
fascists
Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social h ...
and
neo-Nazis
Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and racial supremacy (often white supremacy), to att ...
, it has also been used to refer to those to the right of mainstream
right-wing politics
Right-wing politics is the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that view certain social orders and Social stratification, hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position b ...
.
According to political scientist Lubomír Kopeček, "
e best working definition of the contemporary far right may be the four-element combination of nationalism, xenophobia, law and order, and welfare chauvinism proposed for the Western European environment by Cas Mudde."
Relying on those concepts, far-right politics includes yet is not limited to aspects of authoritarianism, anti-communism,
and
nativism. Claims that superior people should have greater rights than inferior people are often associated with the far right, as they have historically favored a social Darwinistic or
elitist hierarchy based on the belief in the legitimacy of the rule of a supposedly superior minority over the inferior masses. Regarding the socio-cultural dimension of nationality, culture and migration, one far-right position is the view that certain ethnic, racial, or religious groups should stay separate, based on the belief that the interests of one's own group should be prioritized.
[Widfeldt, Anders, "A fourth phase of the extreme right? Nordic immigration-critical parties in a comparative context". In: ''NORDEUROPAforum'' (2010:1/2), 7–31]
Edoc.hu
In Western Europe, far-right parties have been associated with
anti-immigrant
Opposition to immigration, also known as anti-immigration, is a political position that seeks to restrict immigration. In the modern sense, immigration refers to the entry of people from one state or territory into another state or territory in ...
policies, as well as opposition to
globalism and
European integration
European integration is the process of political, legal, social, regional and economic integration of states wholly or partially in Europe, or nearby. European integration has primarily but not exclusively come about through the European Union ...
. They often make nationalist and
xenophobic
Xenophobia (from (), 'strange, foreign, or alien', and (), 'fear') is the fear or dislike of anything that is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression that is based on the perception that a conflict exists between an in-gr ...
appeals which make allusions to
ethnic nationalism
Ethnic nationalism, also known as ethnonationalism, is a form of nationalism wherein the nation and nationality are defined in terms of ethnicity, with emphasis on an ethnocentric (and in some cases an ethnostate/ethnocratic) approach to variou ...
rather than
civic nationalism
Civic nationalism, otherwise known as democratic nationalism, is a form of nationalism that adheres to traditional liberal values of freedom, tolerance, equality, and individual rights, and is not based on ethnocentrism. Civic nationalists ...
(or liberal nationalism). Some have at their core
illiberal policies, such as removing
checks on executive authority, and protections for minorities from majority (
multipluralism). In the 1990s, the "winning formula" was often to attract anti-immigrant
blue collar workers and
white collar workers
A white-collar worker is a person who performs professional service, desk, managerial, or administrative work. White-collar work may be performed in an office or similar setting. White-collar workers include job paths related to government, con ...
who wanted less state intervention in the economy, but in the 2000s, this switched to
welfare chauvinism
Welfare chauvinism or welfare state nationalism is the political notion that welfare benefits should be restricted to certain groups, particularly to the natives of a country as opposed to immigrants, or should be for the majority, excluding ...
.
In comparing the Western European and
post-Communist Central European far-right, Kopeček writes that "
e Central European far right was also typified by a strong anti-Communism, much more markedly than in Western Europe", allowing for "a basic ideological classification within a unified party family, despite the heterogeneity of the far right parties." Kopeček concludes that a comparison of Central European far-right parties with those of Western Europe shows that "these four elements are present in Central Europe as well, though in a somewhat modified form, despite differing political, economic, and social influences."
In the American and more general Anglo-Saxon environment, the most common term is "
radical right", which has a broader meaning than the
European radical right.
Mudde defines the
American radical right as an "old school of nativism, populism, and hostility to central government
hich
Ij () is a village in Golabar Rural District of the Central District in Ijrud County, Zanjan province, Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq ...
was said to have developed into the post-World War II combination of ultranationalism and anti-communism, Christian fundamentalism, militaristic orientation, and anti-alien sentiment."
Jodi Dean argues that "the rise of far-right anti-communism in many parts of the world" should be interpreted "as a politics of fear, which utilizes the disaffection and anger generated by capitalism.
..Partisans of far right-wing organizations, in turn, use anti-communism to challenge every political current which is not embedded in a clearly exposed nationalist and racist agenda. For them, both the USSR and the European Union, leftist liberals, ecologists, and supranational corporationsall of these may be called 'communist' for the sake of their expediency."
In ''Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right'', Cynthia Miller-Idriss examines the far right as a global movement and representing a cluster of overlapping "
antidemocratic, antiegalitarian,
white supremacist
White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine ...
" beliefs that are "embedded in solutions like
authoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in democracy, separation of powers, civil liberties, and ...
,
ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, or religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making the society ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal such as deportation or population transfer, it ...
or ethnic migration, and the establishment of
separate ethno-states or enclaves along racial and ethnic lines".
Modern debates
Terminology
According to
Jean-Yves Camus and
Nicolas Lebourg
Nicolas Lebourg (born 1974) is a French historian who specializes on far-right movements in Europe.
Biography
Born in 1974, Lebourg studied sociology at Aix-Marseille University and history at the University of Perpignan, from which he graduate ...
, the modern ambiguities in the definition of far-right politics lie in the fact that the concept is generally used by political adversaries to "disqualify and stigmatize all forms of partisan nationalism by reducing them to the historical experiments of
Italian Fascism
Italian fascism (), also called classical fascism and Fascism, is the original fascist ideology, which Giovanni Gentile and Benito Mussolini developed in Italy. The ideology of Italian fascism is associated with a series of political parties le ...
nd German National Socialism". Mudde agrees and notes that "the term is not only used for scientific purposes but also for political purposes. Several authors define right-wing extremism as a sort of anti-thesis against their own beliefs." While the existence of such a political position is widely accepted among scholars, figures associated with the far-right rarely accept this denomination, preferring terms like "national movement" or "national right". There is also debate about how appropriate the labels
neo-fascist
Neo-fascism is a post-World War II far-right ideology which includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, ultraconservatism, racial supremacy, right-wing populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xe ...
or
neo-Nazi
Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
are. In the words of Mudde, "the labels Neo-Nazi and to a lesser extent neo-Fascism are now used exclusively for parties and groups that explicitly state a desire to restore the
Third Reich
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...
or quote historical National Socialism as their ideological influence."
One issue is whether parties should be labelled radical or extreme, a distinction that is made by the
Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
The Federal Constitutional Court ( ; abbreviated: ) is the supreme court, supreme constitutional court for the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany, established by the constitution or Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, Basic Law ...
when determining whether or not a party should be banned. Within the broader family of the far right, the extreme right is revolutionary, opposing popular sovereignty and majority rule, and sometimes supporting violence, whereas the radical right is reformist, accepting free elections, but opposing fundamental elements of liberal democracy such as minority rights, rule of law, or separation of powers.
After a survey of the academic literature, Mudde concluded in 2002 that the terms "right-wing extremism", "
right-wing populism
Right-wing populism, also called national populism and right populism, is a political ideology that combines right-wing politics with populist rhetoric and themes. Its rhetoric employs anti- elitist sentiments, opposition to the Establis ...
", "national populism", or "neo-populism" were often used as synonyms by scholars (or, nonetheless, terms with "striking similarities"), except notably among a few authors studying the extremist-theoretical tradition.
Relation to right-wing politics
Italian philosopher and political scientist
Norberto Bobbio
Norberto Bobbio (; 18 October 1909 – 9 January 2004) was an Italian philosopher of law and political sciences and a historian of political thought. He also wrote regularly for the Turin-based daily '' La Stampa''.
Bobbio was a social lib ...
argues that attitudes towards equality are primarily what distinguish
left-wing politics
Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...
from
right-wing politics
Right-wing politics is the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that view certain social orders and Social stratification, hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position b ...
on the
political spectrum
A political spectrum is a system to characterize and classify different Politics, political positions in relation to one another. These positions sit upon one or more Geometry, geometric Coordinate axis, axes that represent independent political ...
: "the left considers the key inequalities between people to be artificial and negative, which should be overcome by an active state, whereas the right believes that inequalities between people are natural and positive, and should be either defended or left alone by the state."
Aspects of far-right ideology can be identified in the agenda of some contemporary right-wing parties: in particular, the idea that superior persons should dominate society while undesirable elements should be purged, which in extreme cases has resulted in
genocide
Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...
s. Charles Grant, director of the
Centre for European Reform in London, distinguishes between
fascism
Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...
and right-wing nationalist parties which are often described as far right such as the
National Front in France.
Mudde notes that the most successful European far-right parties in 2019 were "former mainstream right-wing parties that have turned into populist radical right ones." According to historian
Mark Sedgwick, "
ere is no general agreement as to where the mainstream ends and the extreme starts, and if there ever had been agreement on this, the recent shift in the mainstream would challenge it."
Proponents of the
horseshoe theory interpretation of the
left–right political spectrum
The left–right political spectrum is a system of classifying political positions, ideologies and political parties, parties, with emphasis placed upon issues of social equality and social hierarchy. In addition to positions on the left and on ...
identify the
far left and the far right as having more in common with each other as
extremists than each of them has with
centrists or
moderate
Moderate is an ideological category which entails centrist views on a liberal-conservative spectrum. It may also designate a rejection of radical or extreme views, especially in regard to politics and religion.
Political position
Canad ...
s. This theory has received criticism,
including the argument that it has been centrists who have supported far-right and fascist regimes over socialist ones.
Nature of support
Jens Rydgren describes a number of theories as to why individuals support far-right political parties and the academic literature on this topic distinguishes between demand-side theories that have changed the "interests, emotions, attitudes and preferences of voters" and supply-side theories which focus on the programmes of parties, their organization and the opportunity structures within individual political systems. The most common demand-side theories are the
social breakdown thesis, the
relative deprivation thesis
Relative deprivation is the lack of resources to sustain the diet, lifestyle, activities and amenities that an individual or group are accustomed to or that are widely encouraged or approved in the society to which they belong. Peter Townsend, ''Po ...
, the
modernization losers thesis and the
ethnic competition thesis.
The rise of far-right parties has also been viewed as a rejection of
post-materialist values on the part of some voters. This theory which is known as the
reverse post-material thesis blames both left-wing and
progressive parties for embracing a post-material agenda (including
feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
and
environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of green ideology and politics, ecolog ...
) that alienates traditional working class voters. Another study argues that individuals who join far-right parties determine whether those parties develop into major political players or whether they remain marginalized.
Early academic studies adopted psychoanalytical explanations for the far right's support. The 1933 publication ''
The Mass Psychology of Fascism'' by
Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich ( ; ; 24 March 1897 – 3 November 1957) was an Austrian Doctor of Medicine, doctor of medicine and a psychoanalysis, psychoanalyst, a member of the second generation of analysts after Sigmund Freud. The author of several in ...
argued the theory that fascists came to power in Germany as a result of
sexual repression
Sexual repression is a state in which a person is prevented from expressing their own sexuality or sexual orientation. Sexual repression can be caused by an emotional conflict, in which a person feels guilt, shame, or distress regarding their ...
. For some far-right parties in Western Europe, the issue of immigration has become the dominant issue among them, so much so that some scholars refer to these parties as "anti-immigrant" parties.
Intellectual history
Background
The
French Revolution in 1789 created a major shift in political thought by challenging the established ideas supporting hierarchy with new ones about universal
equality
Equality generally refers to the fact of being equal, of having the same value.
In specific contexts, equality may refer to:
Society
* Egalitarianism, a trend of thought that favors equality for all people
** Political egalitarianism, in which ...
and
freedom
Freedom is the power or right to speak, act, and change as one wants without hindrance or restraint. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving oneself one's own laws".
In one definition, something is "free" i ...
. The modern
left–right political spectrum
The left–right political spectrum is a system of classifying political positions, ideologies and political parties, parties, with emphasis placed upon issues of social equality and social hierarchy. In addition to positions on the left and on ...
also emerged during this period. Democrats and proponents of
universal suffrage
Universal suffrage or universal franchise ensures the right to vote for as many people bound by a government's laws as possible, as supported by the " one person, one vote" principle. For many, the term universal suffrage assumes the exclusion ...
were located on the left side of the elected French Assembly, while monarchists seated farthest to the right.
The strongest opponents of
liberalism
Liberalism is a Political philosophy, political and moral philosophy based on the Individual rights, rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, the right to private property, and equality before the law. ...
and
democracy
Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...
during the 19th century, such as
Joseph de Maistre
Joseph Marie, comte de Maistre (1 April 1753 – 26 February 1821) was a Savoyard philosopher, writer, lawyer, diplomat, and magistrate. One of the forefathers of conservatism, Maistre advocated social hierarchy and monarchy in the period immedi ...
and
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philology, classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche bec ...
, were highly critical of the French Revolution. Those who advocated a return to the
absolute monarchy during the 19th century called themselves "ultra-monarchists" and embraced a "
mystic" and "
providentialist" vision of the world where royal dynasties were seen as the "repositories of divine will". The opposition to liberal modernity was based on the belief that hierarchy and rootedness are more important than equality and liberty, with the latter two being dehumanizing.
Emergence
In the French public debate following the
Bolshevik Revolution
The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. It was led by Vladimir L ...
of 1917, ''far right'' was used to describe the strongest opponents of the ''
far left'', those who supported the events occurring in Russia. A number of thinkers on the far right nonetheless claimed an influence from an
anti-Marxist and
anti-egalitarian interpretation of
socialism
Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
, based on a military comradeship that rejected
Marxist
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...
class analysis, or what
Oswald Spengler
Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler (29 May 1880 – 8 May 1936) was a German polymath whose areas of interest included history, philosophy, mathematics, science, and art, as well as their relation to his organic theory of history. He is best know ...
had called a "socialism of the blood", which is sometimes described by scholars as a form of "
socialist revisionism".
They included
Charles Maurras
Charles-Marie-Photius Maurras (; ; 20 April 1868 – 16 November 1952) was a French author, politician, poet and critic. He was an organiser and principal philosopher of ''Action Française'', a political movement that was monarchist, corporatis ...
,
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...
,
Arthur Moeller van den Bruck and
Ernst Niekisch.
Those thinkers eventually split along nationalist lines from the original
communist movement
Communist Movement (in Spanish: ''Movimiento Comunista'', in Basque: ''Mugimendu Komunista'', in Catalan: ''Moviment Comunista'', in Galician: ''Movemento Comunista'', in Asturian: ''Movimientu Comunista'') was a political party in Spain
...
,
Karl Marx
Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
and
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels ( ;["Engels"](_blank)
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.[nationalist
Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...]
theories with the idea that "the working men
adno country." The main reason for that ideological confusion can be found in the consequences of the
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...
of 1870, which according to Swiss historian
Philippe Burrin had completely redesigned the political landscape in Europe by diffusing the idea of an anti-individualistic concept of "national unity" rising above the right and left division.
As the concept of "the masses" was introduced into the political debate through
industrialization
Industrialisation (British English, UK) American and British English spelling differences, or industrialization (American English, US) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an i ...
and the
universal suffrage
Universal suffrage or universal franchise ensures the right to vote for as many people bound by a government's laws as possible, as supported by the " one person, one vote" principle. For many, the term universal suffrage assumes the exclusion ...
, a new right-wing founded on national and social ideas began to emerge, what
Zeev Sternhell has called the "revolutionary right" and a foreshadowing of
fascism
Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...
. The rift between the left and nationalists was furthermore accentuated by the emergence of anti-militarist and anti-patriotic movements like
anarchism
Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...
or
syndicalism
Syndicalism is a labour movement within society that, through industrial unionism, seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through Strike action, strikes and other forms of direct action, with the eventual goa ...
, which shared even fewer similarities with the far right. The latter began to develop a "nationalist mysticism" entirely different from that on the left, and antisemitism turned into a credo of the far right, marking a break from the traditional economic "anti-Judaism" defended by parts of the far left, in favour of a racial and pseudo-scientific notion of
alterity
In philosophy and anthropology, alterity refers to the state of being "other" or different (Latin ''alter''). It describes the experience of encountering something or someone perceived as distinct from oneself or one's own group. The concept of al ...
. Various nationalist leagues began to form across Europe like the
Pan-German League
The Pan-German League () was a Pan-German nationalist organization which was officially founded in 1891, a year after the Zanzibar Treaty was signed.
Primarily dedicated to the German question of the time, it held positions on German imperia ...
or the
Ligue des Patriotes
The League of Patriots () was a French far-right league, founded in 1882 by the nationalist poet Paul Déroulède, historian Henri Martin and politician Félix Faure. The Ligue began as a non-partisan nationalist league, supported among other ...
, with the common goal of a uniting the masses beyond social divisions.
''Völkisch'' and revolutionary right
The
''Völkisch'' movement emerged in the late 19th century, drawing inspiration from
German Romanticism
German Romanticism () was the dominant intellectual movement of German-speaking countries in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, influencing philosophy, aesthetics, literature, and criticism. Compared to English Romanticism, the German vari ...
and its fascination for a
medieval Reich supposedly organized into a harmonious hierarchical order. Erected on the idea of "
blood and soil
Blood and soil (, ) is a nationalist slogan expressing Nazi Germany's ideal of a racially defined Body national, national body ("Blood") united with a settlement area ("Soil"). By it, rural and farm life forms are idealized as a counterweight t ...
", it was a
racialist,
populist
Populism is a contested concept used to refer to a variety of political stances that emphasize the idea of the " common people" and often position this group in opposition to a perceived elite. It is frequently associated with anti-establis ...
,
agrarian,
romantic nationalist and an
antisemitic
Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
movement from the 1900s onward as a consequence of a growing exclusive and racial connotation. They idealized the myth of an "original nation", that still could be found at their times in the rural regions of Germany, a form of "primitive democracy freely subjected to their natural elites."
Thinkers led by
Arthur de Gobineau,
Houston Stewart Chamberlain
Houston Stewart Chamberlain (; 9 September 1855 – 9 January 1927) was a British-German-French philosopher who wrote works about political philosophy and natural science. His writing promoted German ethnonationalism, antisemitism, scientific r ...
,
Alexis Carrel and
Georges Vacher de Lapouge distorted
Darwin's
theory of evolution
Evolution is the change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, resulting in certai ...
to advocate a "race struggle" and an hygienist vision of the world. The purity of the bio-mystical and primordial nation theorized by the ''Völkischen'' then began to be seen as corrupted by foreign elements, Jewish in particular.
Translated in
Maurice Barrès
Auguste-Maurice Barrès (; 19 August 1862 – 4 December 1923) was a French novelist, journalist, philosopher, and politician. Spending some time in Italy, he became a figure in French literature with the release of his work ''The Cult of the S ...
' concept of "the earth and the dead", these ideas influenced the pre-fascist "revolutionary right" across Europe. The latter had its origin in the ''
fin de siècle
"''Fin de siècle''" () is a French term meaning , a phrase which typically encompasses both the meaning of the similar English idiom '' turn of the century'' and also makes reference to the closing of one era and onset of another. Without co ...
'' intellectual crisis and it was, in the words of
Fritz Stern, the deep "cultural despair" of thinkers feeling uprooted within the
rationalism
In philosophy, rationalism is the Epistemology, epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "the position that reason has precedence over other ways of acquiring knowledge", often in contrast to ot ...
and
scientism
Scientism is the belief that science and the scientific method are the best or only way to render truth about the world and reality.
While the term was defined originally to mean "methods and attitudes typical of or attributed to natural scientis ...
of the modern world.
It was characterized by a rejection of the established social order, with revolutionary tendencies and anti-capitalist stances, a populist and
plebiscitary dimension, the advocacy of violence as a means of action and a call for individual and collective
palingenesis ("regeneration, rebirth").
Contemporary thought
The key thinkers of contemporary far-right politics are claimed by
Mark Sedgwick to share four key elements, namely
apocalyptism, fear of
global elite
In Political theory, political and sociological theory, the elite (, from , to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful or wealthy people who hold a economic inequality, disproportionate amount of wealth, Social privilege, privilege ...
s, belief in
Carl Schmitt
Carl Schmitt (11 July 1888 – 7 April 1985) was a German jurist, author, and political theorist.
Schmitt wrote extensively about the effective wielding of political power. An authoritarian conservative theorist, he was noted as a critic of ...
's
friend–enemy distinction and the idea of
metapolitics. The apocalyptic strain of thought begins in
Oswald Spengler
Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler (29 May 1880 – 8 May 1936) was a German polymath whose areas of interest included history, philosophy, mathematics, science, and art, as well as their relation to his organic theory of history. He is best know ...
's ''
The Decline of the West
''The Decline of the West'' (; more literally, ''The Downfall of the Occident'' or even more literally, "The Going-Under of the Evening Lands"; some of the poetry of the original is lost in translation) is a two-volume work by Oswald Spengler. Th ...
'' and is shared by
Julius Evola
Giulio Cesare Andrea "Julius" Evola (; 19 May 1898 – 11 June 1974) was an Italian far-right philosopher and writer. Evola regarded his values as Traditionalist conservatism, traditionalist, Aristocracy, aristocratic, War, martial and Empire, im ...
and
Alain de Benoist
Alain de Benoist ( ; ; born 11 December 1943), also known as Fabrice Laroche, Robert de Herte, David Barney, and other pen names, is a French political philosopher and journalist, a founding member of the ''Nouvelle Droite'' (France's European Ne ...
. It continues in ''
The Death of the West'' by
Pat Buchanan
Patrick Joseph Buchanan ( ; born November 2, 1938) is an American paleoconservative author, political commentator, and politician. He was an assistant and special consultant to U.S. presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan. He ...
as well as in fears over
Islamization of Europe.
Ernst Jünger
Ernst Jünger (; 29 March 1895 – 17 February 1998) was a German author, highly decorated soldier, philosopher, and entomology, entomologist who became publicly known for his World War I memoir ''Storm of Steel''.
The son of a successful busin ...
was concerned about
rootless cosmopolitan elites while de Benoist and Buchanan oppose the
managerial state and
Curtis Yarvin is against "the Cathedral". Schmitt's friend–enemy distinction has inspired the French
Nouvelle Droite
The ''Nouvelle Droite'' (, ), sometimes shortened to the initialism ND, is a far-right politics, far-right political movement which emerged in France during the late 1960s. The ''Nouvelle Droite'' is the origin of the wider European New Right ( ...
idea of
ethnopluralism.

In a 1961 book deemed influential in the European far-right at large, French neo-fascist writer
Maurice Bardèche
Maurice Bardèche (1 October 1907 – 30 July 1998) was a French art critic and journalist, better known as one of the leading exponents of neo-fascism and Holocaust denial in post–World War II Europe.
Bardèche was also the brother-in-law ...
introduced the idea that fascism could survive the 20th century under a new
metapolitical guise adapted to the changes of the times. Rather than trying to revive doomed regimes with their
single party
A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a governance structure in which only a single political party controls the ruling system. In a one-party state, all opposition parties are either outlawed or en ...
,
secret police
image:Putin-Stasi-Ausweis.png, 300px, Vladimir Putin's secret police identity card, issued by the East German Stasi while he was working as a Soviet KGB liaison officer from 1985 to 1989. Both organizations used similar forms of repression.
Secre ...
or public display of
Caesarism, Bardèche argued that its theorists should promote the core philosophical idea of
fascism
Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...
regardless of its framework, i.e. the concept that only a minority, "the physically saner, the morally purer, the most conscious of national interest", can represent best the community and serve the less gifted in what Bardèche calls a new "
feudal
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...
contract".
Another influence on contemporary far-right thought has been the
Traditionalist School
Traditionalism, also known as the Traditionalist School, is a school of thought within perennial philosophy. Originating in the thought of René Guénon in the 20th century, it proposes that a single primordial, metaphysical truth forms the so ...
, which included
Julius Evola
Giulio Cesare Andrea "Julius" Evola (; 19 May 1898 – 11 June 1974) was an Italian far-right philosopher and writer. Evola regarded his values as Traditionalist conservatism, traditionalist, Aristocracy, aristocratic, War, martial and Empire, im ...
, and has influenced
Steve Bannon
Stephen Kevin Bannon (born November 27, 1953) is an American media executive, political strategist, and former investment banker. He served as the White House's chief strategist for the first seven months of president Donald Trump's first ...
and
Aleksandr Dugin, advisors to
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
and
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...
as well as the
Jobbik
The Jobbik – Movement for a Better Hungary (, ), commonly known as Jobbik (), and previously known as Conservatives () between 2023 and 2024, is a Conservatism, conservative List of political parties in Hungary, political party in Hungary.
Ori ...
party in Hungary.
International organizations
During the rise of Nazi Germany, far-right international organizations began to emerge in the 1930s with the
International Conference of Fascist Parties in 1932 and the
Fascist International Congress in 1934.
During the 1934 Fascist International Conference, the ' (CAUR; English: Action Committees for the Universality of Rome), created by
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...
's
Fascist Regime to create a network for a "Fascist International", representatives from far-right groups gathered in
Montreux
Montreux (, ; ; ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, Swiss municipality and List of towns in Switzerland, town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Swiss Alps, Alps. It belongs to the Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut (district), Riviera-Pays ...
,
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
, including
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
's
Iron Guard
The Iron Guard () was a Romanian militant revolutionary nationalism, revolutionary Clerical fascism, religious fascist Political movement, movement and political party founded in 1927 by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as the Legion of the Archangel M ...
,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
's
Nasjonal Samling
The Nasjonal Samling (, NS; ) was a Norway, Norwegian far-right politics, far-right political party active from 1933 to 1945. It was the only legal party of Norway from 1942 to 1945. It was founded by former minister of defence Vidkun Quisling a ...
, the
Greek National Socialist Party,
Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
's
Falange movement,
Ireland's Blueshirts
The Army Comrades Association (ACA), later the National Guard, Young Ireland and finally League of Youth, known by the nickname the Blueshirts (), was a paramilitary organisation in the Irish Free State, founded in 1932.New Irish Army Arises, Ne ...
,
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
's ''
Mouvement Franciste
The Francist Movement (, MF) was a French Fascism, fascist and anti-semitic Far-right leagues, league created by Marcel Bucard in September 1933 that edited the newspaper ''Le Francisme''. Mouvement franciste reached a membership of 10,000 and ...
and''
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...
's
União Nacional, among others.
[ Payne, Stanley G. "Fascist Italy and Spain, 1922–1945". ''Spain and the Mediterranean Since 1898'', Raanan Rein, ed. p. 105. London, 1999] However, no international group was fully established before the outbreak of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
.
Following World War II, other far-right organizations attempted to establish themselves, such as the European organizations of
Nouvel Ordre Européen,
European Social Movement and
Circulo Español de Amigos de Europa or the further-reaching
World Union of National Socialists and the
League for Pan-Nordic Friendship.
Beginning in the 1980s, far-right groups began to solidify themselves through official political avenues.
With the founding of the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
in 1993, far-right groups began to espouse
Euroscepticism
Euroscepticism, also spelled as Euroskepticism or EU-scepticism, is a political position involving criticism of the European Union (EU) and European integration. It ranges from those who oppose some EU institutions and policies and seek reform ...
, nationalist and anti-migrant beliefs.
By 2010, the Eurosceptic group
European Alliance for Freedom
European, or Europeans, may refer to:
In general
* ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe
** Ethnic groups in Europe
** Demographics of Europe
** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe and other We ...
emerged and saw some prominence during the
2014 European Parliament election
The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 22 and 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties field ...
.
The majority of far-right groups in the 2010s began to establish international contacts with right-wing coalitions to develop a solidified platform.
In 2017,
Steve Bannon
Stephen Kevin Bannon (born November 27, 1953) is an American media executive, political strategist, and former investment banker. He served as the White House's chief strategist for the first seven months of president Donald Trump's first ...
would create
The Movement, an organization to create an international far-right group based on
Aleksandr Dugin's ''
The Fourth Political Theory'', for the
2019 European Parliament election
The 2019 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 23 and 26 May 2019. It was the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) we ...
.
The European Alliance for Freedom would also reorganize into
Identity and Democracy
Identity and Democracy (ID; ) was a political group of the European Parliament during the Ninth European Parliament term, launched on 13 June 2019. It comprised Far right politics, far-right, Right-wing populism, right-wing populist, Euroscept ...
for the 2019 European Parliament election.
The far-right Spanish party
Vox initially introduced the
Madrid Charter project, a planned group to denounce left-wing groups in
Ibero-America
Ibero-America (, ) or Iberian America is generally considered to be the region in the Americas comprising countries or territories where Spanish or Portuguese are predominant languages (usually former colony, territories of Spain or Portugal). Sp ...
, to the government of United States president
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
while visiting the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
in February 2019, with
Santiago Abascal
Santiago Abascal Conde (; born 14 April 1976) is a Spanish politician who has been the Vox (political party)#Presidents, president of Vox since 2015. He has also been the Patriots.eu#President, president of Patriots.eu since 2024, and has been a ...
and
Rafael Bardají using their good relations with the administration to build support within the
Republican Party and establishing strong ties with American contacts.
In March 2019, Abascal tweeted an image of himself wearing a
morion similar to a
conquistador
Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (; ; ) were Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with and colonized parts of the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia during the Age of Discovery. Sailing ...
, with ''
ABC'' writing in an article detailing the document that this event provided a narrative that "symbolizes in part the
expansionist
Expansionism refers to states obtaining greater territory through military empire-building or colonialism.
In the classical age of conquest moral justification for territorial expansion at the direct expense of another established polity (who ...
mood of Vox and its ideology far from Spain".
The charter subsequently grew to include signers that had little to no relation to Latin America and Spanish-speaking areas.
Vox has advised
Javier Milei
Javier Gerardo Milei (born 22 October 1970) is an Argentine politician and economist who has served as President of Argentina since 2023. Milei also served as a national deputy representing the City of Buenos Aires for the party La Libertad ...
in
Argentina
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
, the
Bolsonaro family in
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
,
José Antonio Kast
José Antonio Kast Rist (born 18 January 1966), also known by his initials JAK, is a Chilean lawyer and politician. He is running for president in the 2025 Chilean general election, for the third time.
Part of the prominent Kast family, he se ...
in
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...
and
Keiko Fujimori
Keiko Sofía Fujimori Higuchi (, , Hepburn romanization, Hepburn: , ; born 25 May 1975) is a Peruvian politician and business administrator. Fujimori is the eldest daughter of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori and Susana Higuchi. From ...
in
Peru
Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...
.
Nationalists from Europe and the United States met at a Holiday Inn in St. Petersburg on March 22, 2015, for first convention of the International Russian Conservative Forum organized by pro-Putin
Rodina-party. The event was attended by fringe right-wing extremists like
Nordic Resistance Movement from Scandinavia but also by more mainstream
MEPs
A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament.
When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Comm ...
from
Golden Dawn and
National Democratic Party of Germany
National Democratic Party of Germany (, NPD), officially called The Homeland () since 2023, is a Far-right politics, far-right, Neo-Nazism, neo-Nazi and Ultranationalism, ultranationalist political party in Germany. It was founded in 1964 as ...
. In addition to Rodina, Russian neo-Nazis from
Russian Imperial Movement and
Rusich Group were also in attendance. The event was attended by several notable American white supremacists including
Jared Taylor and
Brandon Russell.
History by country
Africa
Morocco
Morocco saw a spread of
ultranationalism
Ultranationalism, or extreme nationalism, is an extremist form of nationalism in which a country asserts or maintains hegemony, supremacy, or other forms of control over other nations (usually through violent coercion) to pursue its specific i ...
,
antifeminism
Antifeminism or anti-feminism is opposition to feminism. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, antifeminists opposed particular policy proposals for women's rights, such as the right to vote, educational opportunities, property righ ...
, and
opposition to immigration
Opposition to immigration, also known as anti-immigration, is a political position that seeks to restrict immigration. In the modern sense, immigration refers to the entry of people from one state or territory into another state or territory in ...
themes in digital spaces.
Rwanda
A number of far-right extremist and paramilitary groups carried out the
Rwandan genocide
The Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, occurred from 7 April to 19 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. Over a span of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Gre ...
under the
racial supremacist ideology of
Hutu Power, developed by journalist and Hutu supremacist
Hassan Ngeze.
On 5 July 1975, exactly two years after the
1973 Rwandan coup d'état
The 1973 Rwandan coup d'état, also known as the Coup d'état of 5 July (), was a military coup staged by Juvénal Habyarimana against incumbent president Grégoire Kayibanda in the Republic of Rwanda. The coup took place on 5 July 1973 and w ...
, the far right
National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND) was founded under president
Juvénal Habyarimana
Juvénal Habyarimana (; ; 8 March 19376 April 1994) was a Rwandan politician and military officer who was the second president of Rwanda, from 1973 until Assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, his assassination in 1994. H ...
. Between 1975 and 1991, the MRND was the only legal political party in the country. It was dominated by
Hutu
The Hutu (), also known as the Abahutu, are a Bantu ethnic group native to the African Great Lakes region. They mainly live in Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda where they form one of the principal ethnic groups alongside the Tutsi and the Great L ...
s, particularly from Habyarimana's home region of Northern Rwanda. An elite group of MRND party members who were known to have influence on the President and his wife
Agathe Habyarimana are known as the
akazu
The Akazu (, ''little house'') was an informal organization of elite Hutu extremists whose members contributed strongly to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, genocide in Rwanda. A circle of relatives and close friends of Rwanda's then-president Juvénal ...
, an informal organization of Hutu extremists whose members planned and lead the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Prominent Hutu businessman and member of the akazu,
Félicien Kabuga
Félicien Kabuga (born 1 March 1933) is a Rwandan businessman and genocide suspect who played a major role in the run-up to the Rwandan genocide. A multimillionaire, was one of the genocides main financiers, providing thousands of machetes which were used to commit the genocide. Kabuga also founded
Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines, used to broadcast propaganda and direct the
génocidaires
Génocidaires () are those who commit acts of genocide. The term was used initially in reference to Rwandans who are guilty of genocide for their involvement in the mass killings which were perpetrated in Rwanda during the 1994 Rwandan genocide ...
. Kabuga was arrested in France on 16 May 2020, and charged with
crimes against humanity
Crimes against humanity are certain serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against civilians. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during both peace and war and against a state's own nationals as well as ...
.
= Interahamwe
=
The Interahamwe was formed around 1990 as the
youth wing of the MRND and enjoyed the backing of the Hutu Power government. The Interahamwe were driven out of Rwanda after
Tutsi
The Tutsi ( ), also called Watusi, Watutsi or Abatutsi (), are an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region. They are a Bantu languages, Bantu-speaking ethnic group and the second largest of three main ethnic groups in Rwanda and Burundi ( ...
-led
Rwandan Patriotic Front
The Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF–Inkotanyi; , FPR) is the ruling political party in Rwanda.
The RPF was founded in December 1987 by Rwandan Tutsi in exile in Uganda because of the ethnic violence that had occurred during the Rwandan Hutu Revo ...
victory in the Rwandan Civil War in July 1994 and are considered a
terrorist organisation by many African and Western governments. The Interahamwe and splinter groups such as the
Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda continue to wage an
insurgency
An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare against a larger authority. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric warfare, asymmetric nature: small irregular forces ...
against Rwanda from neighboring countries, where they are also involved in local conflicts and terrorism. The Interahamwe were the main perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide, during which an estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 Tutsi,
Twa and moderate Hutus were killed from April to July 1994 and the term ''Interahamwe'' was widened to mean any civilian bands killing Tutsi.
= Coalition for the Defence of the Republic
=
Other far-right groups and paramilitaries involved included the
anti-democratic segregationist
Racial segregation is the separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life. Segregation can involve the spatial separation of the races, and mandatory use of different institutions, such as schools and hospitals by peopl ...
Coalition for the Defence of the Republic (CDR), which called for complete segregation of Hutus from Tutsis. The CDR had a paramilitary wing known as the
Impuzamugambi. Together with the Interahamwe militia, the Impuzamugambi played a central role in the Rwandan genocide.
South Africa
= Herstigte Nasionale Party
=
The far right in South Africa emerged as the Herstigte Nasionale Party (HNP) in 1969, formed by
Albert Hertzog
Johannes Albertus Munnik Hertzog (; 4 July 1899 – 5 November 1982) was a South African politician, Afrikaner nationalist, cabinet minister, and founding leader of the Herstigte Nasionale Party. He was the son of J. B. M. (Barry) Hertzog, a f ...
as breakaway from the predominant right-wing South African
National Party, an
Afrikaner
Afrikaners () are a Southern African ethnic group descended from predominantly Dutch settlers who first arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: Brain to Casting''. Encyclopæd ...
ethno-nationalist party that implemented the racist, segregationist program of
apartheid
Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
, the legal system of political, economic and social separation of the races intended to maintain and extend political and economic control of South Africa by the White minority. The HNP was formed after the South African National Party re-established diplomatic relations with
Malawi
Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south, and southwest. Malawi spans over and ...
and legislated to allow
Māori
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...
players and spectators to enter the country during the 1970
New Zealand rugby union team
The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of New Zealand, which is considered the country's national sport. Famed for th ...
tour in South Africa. The HNP advocated for a
Calvinist
Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...
, racially segregated and
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...
-speaking nation.
= Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging
=
In 1973,
Eugène Terre'Blanche
Eugène Ney Terre'Blanche (, 31 January 1941Terre'Blanche's year of birth is alternately given as 1941 or 1944. The majority of sources indicates 1941; sources that claim 1944 as his year of birth includ''The Star''
police officer
A police officer (also called policeman or policewoman, cop, officer or constable) is a Warrant (law), warranted law employee of a police, police force. In most countries, ''police officer'' is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. ...
founded the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (Afrikaner Resistance Movement), a South African
neo-Nazi
Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
paramilitary organisation, often described as a
white supremacist
White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine ...
group. Since its founding in 1973 by Eugène Terre'Blanche and six other far-right Afrikaners, it has been dedicated to
secessionist
Secession is the formal withdrawal of a group from a Polity, political entity. The process begins once a group proclaims an act of secession (such as a declaration of independence). A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal i ...
Afrikaner nationalism and the creation of an independent
Boer
Boers ( ; ; ) are the descendants of the proto Afrikaans-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled the Dutch ...
-Afrikaner republic in part of South Africa. During
negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa
The History of South Africa in the apartheid era, apartheid system in South Africa was ended through a series of bilateral and multi-party negotiations between 1990 and 1993. The negotiations culminated in the passage of a new Interim Constitu ...
in the early 1990s, the organization terrorized and killed black South Africans.
Togo
Togo has been ruled by members of the Gnassingbé family and the far-right
military dictatorship
A military dictatorship, or a military regime, is a type of dictatorship in which Power (social and political), power is held by one or more military officers. Military dictatorships are led by either a single military dictator, known as a Polit ...
formerly known as the
Rally of the Togolese People since 1969. Despite the legalisation of political parties in 1991 and the ratification of a democratic constitution in 1992, the regime continues to be regarded as oppressive. In 1993, the European Union cut off aid in reaction to the regime's human-rights offenses. After's Eyadema's death in 2005, his son Faure Gnassingbe took over, then stood down and was re-elected in elections that were widely described as fraudulent and occasioned violence that resulted in as many as 600 deaths and the flight from Togo of 40,000 refugees. In 2012, Faure Gnassingbe dissolved the RTP and created the
Union for the Republic.
Throughout the reign of the Gnassingbé family, Togo has been extremely oppressive. According to a
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy of the United State ...
report based on conditions in 2010, human rights abuses are common and include "security force use of excessive force, including
torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...
, which resulted in deaths and injuries; official impunity; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrests and detention; lengthy pretrial detention; executive influence over the judiciary; infringement of citizens' privacy rights; restrictions on
freedoms of press,
assembly, and movement; official corruption; discrimination and violence against women; child abuse, including female genital mutilation (FGM), and sexual exploitation of children; regional and ethnic discrimination; trafficking in persons, especially women and children; societal discrimination against persons with disabilities; official and societal discrimination against homosexual persons; societal discrimination against persons with Human immunodeficiency virus, HIV; and forced labor, including by children."
Americas
Brazil
During the 1920s and 1930s, a local brand of religious fascism appeared known as Brazilian Integralism, coalescing around the party known as Brazilian Integralist Action. It adopted many characteristics of European fascist movements, including a green-shirted paramilitary organization with uniformed ranks, highly regimented street demonstrations and rhetoric against Marxism and
liberalism
Liberalism is a Political philosophy, political and moral philosophy based on the Individual rights, rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, the right to private property, and equality before the law. ...
.
Prior to World War II, the Nazi Party had been making and distributing propaganda among ethnic Germans in Brazil. The Nazi regime built close ties with Brazil through the estimated 100 thousand native Germans and 1 million German descendants living in Brazil at the time. In 1928, the Brazilian section of the Nazi Party was founded in Timbó, Santa Catarina. This section reached 2,822 members and was the largest section of the Nazi Party outside Germany. About 100 thousand born Germans and about one million descendants lived in Brazil at that time.
After Germany's defeat in World War II, many Nazi war criminals fled to Brazil and hid among the German-Brazilian communities. The most notable example of this was Josef Mengele, a Nazi SS officer and physician known as the "Angel of Death" for his deadly experiments on prisoners at the Auschwitz II (Birkenau) concentration camp, who fled first to Argentina, then Paraguay, before finally settling in Brazil in 1960. Mengele eventually drowned in 1979 in Bertioga, on the coast of São Paulo state, without ever having been recognized in his 19 years in Brazil.
The far right has continued to operate throughout Brazil and a number of far-right parties existed in the modern era including Patriota, the Brazilian Labour Renewal Party, the Party of the Reconstruction of the National Order, the National Renewal Alliance and the Social Liberal Party (Brazil), Social Liberal Party as well as death squads such as the Command for Hunting Communists. Former President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro was a member of the Alliance for Brazil, a far-right nationalist political group that aimed to become a political party, until 2022, when the party was disbanded. Since 2022, he is a member of the Liberal Party (Brazil, 2006), Liberal Party. Bolsonaro has been widely described by numerous media organizations as far right.
Guatemala
In Guatemala, the far-right
government of Carlos Castillo Armas utilized death squads after coming to power in the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état.
Along with other far-right extremists, Castillo Armas started the National Liberation Movement (Guatemala), National Liberation Movement (''Movimiento de Liberación Nacional'', or MLN). The founders of the party described it as the "party of organized violence".
The new government promptly reversed the democratic reforms initiated during the Guatemalan Revolution and the agrarian reform program (Decree 900) that was the main project of president Jacobo Arbenz Guzman and which directly impacted the interests of both the United Fruit Company and the Guatemalan landowners.
Mano Blanca, otherwise known as the Movement of Organized Nationalist Action, was set up in 1966 as a front for the MLN to carry out its more violent activities,
along with many other similar groups, including the New Anticommunist Organization and the Anticommunist Council of Guatemala.
Mano Blanca was active during the governments of colonel Carlos Arana Osorio and general Kjell Laugerud García and was dissolved by general Fernando Romeo Lucas Garcia in 1978.
Armed with the support and coordination of the Guatemalan Armed Forces, Mano Blanca began a campaign described by the United States Department of State as one of "kidnappings, torture, and summary execution."
One of the main targets of Mano Blanca was the Revolutionary Party (Guatemala), Revolutionary Party, an anti-communist group that was the only major reform oriented party allowed to operate under the military-dominated regime. Other targets included the banned leftist parties.
Human rights activist Blase Bonpane described the activities of Mano Blanca as being an integral part of the policy of the Guatemalan government and by extension the policy of the United States government and the Central Intelligence Agency. Overall, Mano Blanca was responsible for thousands of murders and kidnappings, leading travel writer Paul Theroux to refer to them as "Guatemala's version of a volunteer Gestapo unit".
Chile

The National Socialist Movement of Chile (MNSCH) was created in the 1930s with the funding from the German population in Chile.
[Stanley G. Payne, ''A History of Fascism: 1914–1945'', London: Routledge, 2001, p. 341] In 1938, the MNSCH was dissolved after Seguro Obrero massacre, it attempted a coup and recreated itself as the Popular Freedom Alliance party, later merging with the Agrarian Party to create the Agrarian Labor Party (PAL). PAL would go through various mergers to become the , then National Action (Chile, 1963), National Action and finally the National Party (Chile, 1966), National Party.
Following the fall of Nazi Germany, many Nazis fled to Chile.
The National Party supported the 1973 Chilean coup d'état that established the Military dictatorship of Chile (1973–1990), military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet with many members assuming positions in Pinochet's government. Pinochet headed a far-right dictatorship in Chile from 1973 to 1990.
According to author Peter Levenda, Pinochet was "openly pro-Nazi" and used former Gestapo members to train his own Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) personnel.
Pinochet's DINA sent political prisoners to the Chilean-German town of Colonia Dignidad, with the town's actions being defended by the Pinochet government.
[Infield, Glenn, ''Secrets of the SS'', 1981, p. 206.] The Central Intelligence Agency and Simon Wiesenthal also provided evidence of Josef Mengelethe infamous Nazi concentration camp doctor known as the "Angel of Death" for his lethal Nazi human experimentation, experiments on human subjectsbeing present in Colonia Dignidad.
Former DINA member Michael Townley also stated that biological warfare weapons experiments occurred at the colony.
Following the end of Pinochet's government, the National Party would split to become the more centrist National Renewal (Chile), National Renewal (RN), while individuals who supported Pinochet organized Independent Democratic Union (UDI). UDI is a far-right political party that was formed by former Pinochet officials. In 2019, the far-right Republican Party (Chile, 2019), Republican Party was founded by
José Antonio Kast
José Antonio Kast Rist (born 18 January 1966), also known by his initials JAK, is a Chilean lawyer and politician. He is running for president in the 2025 Chilean general election, for the third time.
Part of the prominent Kast family, he se ...
, a UDI politician who believed his former party criticized Pinochet too often.
According to Cox and Blanco, the Republican Party appeared in Chilean politics in a similar manner to Spain's
Vox party, with both parties splitting off from an existing right wing party to collect disillusioned voters.
El Salvador
During the Salvadoran Civil War, far-right death squads known in Spanish by the name of ''Escuadrón de la Muerte'', literally "Squadron of Death, achieved notoriety when a sniper assassinated Archbishop Óscar Romero while he was saying Mass in the Catholic Church, mass in March 1980. In December 1980, 1980 murders of U.S. missionaries in El Salvador, three American nuns and a lay worker were gangraped and murdered by a military unit later found to have been acting on specific orders. Death squads were instrumental in killing thousands of peasants and activists. Funding for the squads came primarily from right-wing Salvadoran businessmen and landowners.
El Salvadorian death squads indirectly received arms, funding, training and advice during the Presidency of Jimmy Carter, Jimmy Carter, Presidency of Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan and Presidency of George H. W. Bush, George H. W. Bush administrations. Some death squads such as Sombra Negra are still operating in El Salvador.
Honduras
Honduras also had far-right death squads active through the 1980s, the most notorious of which was Battalion 3-16 (Honduras), Battalion 3–16. Hundreds of people, teachers, politicians and union bosses were assassinated by government-backed forces. Battalion 316 received substantial support and training from the United States through the Central Intelligence Agency. At least nineteen members were Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, School of the Americas graduates.
As of mid-2006, seven members, including Billy Joya, later played important roles in the administration of President Manuel Zelaya.
Following the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis, former Battalion 3–16 member Nelson Willy Mejía Mejía became Director-General of Immigration
and Billy Joya was ''de facto'' President Roberto Micheletti's security advisor.
Napoleón Nassar Herrera, another former Battalion 3–16 member,
was high Commissioner of Police for the north-west region under Zelaya and under Micheletti, even becoming a Secretary of Security spokesperson "for dialogue" under Micheletti.
Zelaya claimed that Joya had reactivated the death squad, with dozens of government opponents having been murdered since the ascent of the Michiletti and Lobo governments.
Mexico
= National Synarchist Union
=
The largest far-right party in Mexico is the National Synarchist Union. It was historically a movement of the Roman Catholic extreme right, in some ways akin to clerical fascism and
Falangism
Falangism () was the political ideology of three political parties in Spain that were known as the Falange, namely first the Falange Española, the Falange Española de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista (FE de las JONS), and afterwa ...
, strongly opposed to the left-wing and secularist policies of the Institutional Revolutionary Party and its predecessors that governed Mexico from 1929 to 2000 and 2012 to 2018.
Peru
= Fujimorism
=

During the internal conflict in Peru and a struggling presidency of Alan García, the Peruvian Armed Forces created Plan Verde, initially a coup plan that involved establishing a government that would carry out the
genocide
Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...
of impoverished and indigenous Peruvians, the control or censorship of media and the establishment of a neoliberal economy controlled by a military junta in Peru.
Military planners also decided against the coup as they expected Mario Vargas Llosa, a neoliberal candidate, to be elected in the 1990 Peruvian general election.
Vargas Llosa later reported that Anthony C. E. Quainton, the United States Ambassador to Peru, personally told him that allegedly leaked documents of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) purportedly being supportive of his opponent Alberto Fujimori were authentic, reportedly due to Fujimori's relationship with Vladimiro Montesinos, a former National Intelligence Service (Peru), National Intelligence Service (SIN) officer who was tasked with spying on the Peruvian military for the CIA.
An agreement was ultimately adopted between the armed forces and Fujimori after he was inaugurated president,
with many of the objectives outlined in Plan Verde implemented by Fujimori and his followers.
Fujimori then established Fujimorism, an ideology with authoritarian
and conservative traits that is still prevalent throughout Peru's institutions,
leading Peru through the 1992 Peruvian coup d'état until he fled to Japan in 2000 during the Vladivideos scandal. Following Alberto Fujimori's arrest and trial, his daughter
Keiko Fujimori
Keiko Sofía Fujimori Higuchi (, , Hepburn romanization, Hepburn: , ; born 25 May 1975) is a Peruvian politician and business administrator. Fujimori is the eldest daughter of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori and Susana Higuchi. From ...
assumed leadership of the Fujimorist movement and established Popular Force, a far-right political party. The 2016 Peruvian general election resulted with the party holding the most power in the Congress of Peru from 2016 to 2019, marking the beginning of a 2017–present Peruvian political crisis, political crisis. Following the 2021 Peruvian general election, far-right politician Rafael López Aliaga and his party Popular Renewal rose in popularity and a far-right Congress – with the body's largest far-right bloc being Popular Force, Popular Renewal and Advance Country
[
*
*
*
*
* ] – was elected into office.
Following the election, La Resistencia Dios, Patria y Familia, a neofascist militant organization would promote Fujimorism and oppose President Pedro Castillo.
United States
In Politics of the United States, United States politics, the terms "extreme right", "far-right", and "ultra-right" are labels used to describe "militant forms of insurgent revolutionary right ideology and separatist ethnocentric nationalism", according to ''The Public Eye (magazine), The Public Eye''.
The terms are used for groups and movements such as Christian Identity,
the Creativity (religion), Creativity Movement,
the Ku Klux Klan,
the National Socialist Movement (United States), National Socialist Movement,
the National Alliance (United States), National Alliance,
the Joy of Satan Ministries,
and the Order of Nine Angles.
These far-right groups share Conspiracy theories, conspiracist views of power which are overwhelmingly Anti-Semitism, anti-Semitic and reject pluralist democracy in favour of an Organicism#In politics and sociology, organic oligarchy that would unite the perceived homogeneously racial ''Völkisch movement, Völkish'' nation.
The far-right in the United States is composed of various Neo-fascism, neo-fascist, Neo-Nazism, neo-Nazi, White nationalism, white nationalist, and White supremacism, white supremacist organizations and networks who have been known to refer to an "Accelerationism#Far-right accelerationist terrorism, acceleration" of racial conflict through violent means such as assassinations, murders, Right-wing terrorism, terrorist attacks, and societal collapse, in order to achieve the building of a white ethnostate.
= Radical right
=

Starting in the 1870s and continuing through the late 19th century, numerous White supremacism, white supremacist paramilitary groups operated in Southern United States, the South, with the goal of organizing against and intimidating supporters of the
Republican Party. Examples of such groups included the Red Shirts (Southern United States), Red Shirts and the White League. The Second Ku Klux Klan, which was formed in 1915, combined Protestant fundamentalism and moralism with right-wing extremism. Its major support came from the urban South, Midwestern United States, the Midwest, and the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. While the Klan initially drew Upper middle class in the United States, upper middle class support, its bigotry and violence alienated these members and it came to be dominated by less educated and poorer members.
Between the 1920s and the 1930s, the Ku Klux Klan developed an explicitly Nativism (politics)#United States, nativist, pro-White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, Anglo-Saxon Protestant, Anti-Catholicism, anti-Catholic, Anti-Irish sentiment, anti-Irish, Anti-Italianism, anti-Italian, and Anti-Jewish sentiment, anti-Jewish stance in relation to the growing political, economic, and social uncertainty related to the Immigration to the United States, arrival of European immigrants on the American soil, predominantly composed of Irish people, Italians, and Immigration of Eastern European Jews, Eastern European Jews.
The Ku Klux Klan claimed that there was a secret Catholic army within the United States loyal to the Pope, that one million Knights of Columbus were arming themselves, and that Irish-American policemen would shoot Protestantism in the United States, Protestants as heretics. Their sensationalistic claims eventually developed into full-blown Conspiracy theories in United States politics, political conspiracy theories, to the point that the Klan claimed that Anti-Catholicism in the United States, Roman Catholics were planning to take Washington and put the Vatican in power and that List of United States presidential assassination attempts and plots, all presidential assassinations had been carried out by Roman Catholics. The prominent Klan leader D. C. Stephenson believed in the antisemitic canard of Jewish control of finance, claiming that international Jewish bankers were behind the World War I and planned to destroy economic opportunities for Christians. Other Klansmen believed in the Jewish Bolshevism conspiracy theory and claimed that the Russian Revolution and communism were orchestrated by the Jews. They frequently reprinted parts of ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' and New York City was condemned as an evil city controlled by Jews and Roman Catholics. The objects of the Klan fear tended to vary by locale and included African Americans as well as American Catholic Church in the United States, Roman Catholics, American Jews, Jews, Labor unions in the United States, labour unions, Temperance movement, liquor, Asian Americans, Orientals, and Industrial Workers of the World, Wobblies. They were also anti-elitist and attacked "the intellectuals", seeing themselves as egalitarian defenders of the common man. During the Great Depression, there were a large number of small nativist groups, whose ideologies and bases of support were similar to those of earlier nativist groups. However, proto-fascist movements such as Huey Long's Share Our Wealth and Charles Coughlin's National Union for Social Justice (organization), National Union for Social Justice emerged which differed from other right-wing groups by attacking big business, calling for economic reforms, and rejecting nativism. Coughlin's group later developed a Racism in the United States, racist ideology.
During the Cold War and the Red Scares, the far right "saw spies and communists influencing government and entertainment. Thus, despite bipartisan anticommunism in the United States, it was the right that mainly fought the great ideological battle against the communists." The John Birch Society, founded in 1958, is a prominent example of a far-right organization mainly concerned with anti-communism and the perceived threat of communism. Neo-Nazi militant Robert Jay Matthews of the White supremacist group The Order (white supremacist group), The Order came to support the John Birch Society, especially when Conservatism in the United States, conservative icon Barry Goldwater from Arizona ran for the presidency on the
Republican Party ticket. Far-right conservatives consider John Birch (missionary), John Birch to be the first casualty of the Cold War. In the 1990s, many conservatives turned against then-President George H. W. Bush, who pleasured neither the Republican Party's more moderate and far-right wings. As a result, Bush was primared by
Pat Buchanan
Patrick Joseph Buchanan ( ; born November 2, 1938) is an American paleoconservative author, political commentator, and politician. He was an assistant and special consultant to U.S. presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan. He ...
. In the 2000s, critics of President George W. Bush's conservative unilateralism argued it can be traced to both Vice President Dick Cheney who embraced the policy since the early 1990s and to far-right Congressmen who won their seats during the conservative revolution of 1994.
Although small voluntary militias had existed in the United States throughout the latter half of the 20th century, the groups became more popular during the early 1990s, after a series of standoffs between armed citizens and federal government agents, such as the 1992 Ruby Ridge siege and 1993 Waco Siege. These groups expressed concern for what they perceived as government tyranny within the United States and generally held Constitutionalism in the United States, constitutionalist, Libertarianism in the United States, libertarian, and right-libertarian political views, with a strong focus on the Second Amendment gun rights and tax protest. They also embraced many of the same conspiracy theories as predecessor groups on the radical right, particularly the New World Order (conspiracy theory), New World Order conspiracy theory. Examples of such groups are the patriot and militia movements Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters. A minority of militia groups, such as the Aryan Nations and the Posse Comitatus (organization), Posse Comitatus, were White nationalism, White nationalists and saw militia and patriot movements as a form of White resistance against what they perceived to be a Modern liberalism in the United States, liberal and multiculturalist government. Militia and patriot organizations were involved in the 2014 Bundy standoff and the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

After the September 11 attacks in 2001, the counter-jihad movement, supported by groups such as Stop Islamization of America and individuals such as Frank Gaffney and Pamela Geller, began to gain traction among the American right. The counter-jihad members were widely dubbed "Islamophobic" for their Criticism of Islam, vocal criticism of the Islamic religion and Criticism of Muhammad, its founder Muhammad,
and their belief that there was a significant threat posed by Muslims living in America.
Its proponents believed that the United States was under threat from "Islamic supremacism", accusing the Council on American-Islamic Relations and even prominent conservatives such as Suhail A. Khan and Grover Norquist of supporting Islamic extremism, radical Islamism, Islamist groups and organizations, such as the Muslim Brotherhood. The alt-right emerged during the 2016 United States presidential election cycle in support of the
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
's 2016 Donald Trump presidential campaign, presidential campaign (''see'': Trumpism). It draws influence from paleoconservatism, paleolibertarianism, white nationalism, the manosphere, and the Identitarian movement, Identitarian and Neoreactionary movement, neoreactionary movements. The alt-right differs from previous radical right movements due to its heavy internet presence on websites such as 4chan.
Chetan Bhatt, in ''White Extinction: Metaphysical Elements of Contemporary Western Fascism'', says that "The 'fear of white extinction', and related ideas of Eugenics, population eugenics, have travelled far and represent a wider political anxiety about 'white displacement' in the US, UK, and Europe that has fuelled the right-wing phenomena referred to by that sanitizing word '
populism
Populism is a essentially contested concept, contested concept used to refer to a variety of political stances that emphasize the idea of the "common people" and often position this group in opposition to a perceived elite. It is frequently a ...
', a term that neatly evades attention to the racism and white majoritarianism that energizes it."
Asia
India
Bharatiya Janata Party in India has been claimed to combine economic nationalism with religious nationalism.
Indonesia
Some islamists in Indonesia are far-right.
Israel

Kach (political party), Kach was a radical Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Jewish, religious Zionist List of political parties in Israel, political party in Israel, existing from 1971 to 1994.
Founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane in 1971, based on his Jewish-Orthodox-nationalist ideology subsequently known as Kahanism, which held the view that most Arabs living in Israel are enemies of Jews and Israel itself, and believed that a Halakhic state, Jewish theocratic state, where non-Jews have no voting rights, should be created. The party secured a single seat in the Knesset in the 1984 Israeli legislative election, 1984 election,
but was subsequently barred from standing in elections, and both it and Kahanism organisations were banned outright in 1994 by the Cabinet of Israel, Israeli cabinet under 1948 anti-terrorism laws,
[Key Issues: Protecting Charitable organizations](_blank)
U.S. Department of the Treasury following statements by it in support of the 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre by a Kach supporter.
[In the Spotlight: Kach and Kahane Chai](_blank)
Center for Defense Information, 1 October 2002
In 2015, the Kach party and Kahanist movement were believed to have an overlapping membership of fewer than 100 people,
with links to the modern party Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party,
which, running on a Kahanist and anti-Arab platform,
won six seats in the 2022 Israeli legislative election, having run jointly with fellow far-right parties Religious Zionist Party and Noam (political party), Noam.
The thirty-seventh government of Israel which formed after the 2022 Israeli legislative election as subsequently been critiqued as Israel's most hardline and far-right government to date.
The coalition government consists of six parties: Likud, United Torah Judaism, Shas, Otzma Yehudit, Religious Zionist Party and Noam (political party), Noam, so having half of its coalition partners hailing from the far-right. The government has been noted for its significant shift towards far-right policies, and the appointment of controversial far-right politicians, including Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, to positions of considerable influence.
There is also a complex relationship between Israel and the European far-right that has been developing for more than 15 years. The first major public sign of their alliance was in 2010 at an international far-right conference in Tel Aviv organised by a Likud party member.
A primary motivation is a shared anti-Islam ideology but there is also a common dislike of the European Union, of Arab and Muslim immigrants as well as support for undermining democracy and installing autocratic, or worse, rulers and regimes. "Yair Netanyahu, the prime minister's son, last week called for the death of the European Union and the return of a "Christian" Europe."
Other details suggest a deeper collaboration between the Likud, Likud party and the Alternative for Germany, German AfD. "In 2019, the Bundestag passed a resolution condemning B.D.S. as antisemitic..The history of the resolution is telling. A version was originally introduced by the AfD" Netanyahu's government has actively cultivated relations with various European far-right parties and leaders, including Vlaams Belang, Attack, the Freedom Party of Austria, the Alliance for the Union of Romanians and the Sweden Democrats.
These parties offer strong support for Israel's hardline policies towards Palestinians, its opposition to Palestinian statehood, and its pro-settlement stance. Netanyahu has also cultivated a particularly strong bond with Viktor Orbán's Fidesz party in Hungary, a key player in the European far-right landscape and a Russian strategic ally. The Likud, Likud party recently joined the Patriots for Europe alliance in the European Parliament as an observer member.
Japan

In 1996, the National Police Agency (Japan), National Police Agency estimated that there were over 1,000 extremist right-wing groups in Japan, with about 100,000 members in total. These groups are known in Japanese as ''Uyoku dantai''. While there are political differences among the groups, they generally carry a philosophy of anti-leftism, Anti-Chinese sentiment in Japan, hostility towards China, Anti-Korean sentiment, North Korea and South Korea, and justification of Japan during World War II, Japan's role and Japanese war crimes, war crimes in World War II. ''Uyoku dantai'' groups are well known for their highly visible Sound trucks in Japan, propaganda vehicles fitted with loudspeakers and prominently marked with the name of the group and propaganda slogans. The vehicles play patriotic or wartime-era Japanese songs. Activists affiliated with such groups have used Molotov cocktails and time bombs to intimidate moderate Japanese politicians and public figures, including former Deputy Foreign Minister Hitoshi Tanaka and Fuji Xerox Chairman Yotaro Kobayashi. An ex-member of a right-wing group set fire to Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), Liberal Democratic Party politician Koichi Kato (politician, born 1939), Koichi Kato's house. Koichi Kato and Yotaro Kobayashi had spoken out against Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine. Openly revisionist, Nippon Kaigi is considered "the biggest right-wing organization in Japan."
[Muneo Narusawa]
"Abe Shinzo: Japan's New Prime Minister a Far-Right Denier of History"
, The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol 11, Issue 1, No. 1, 14 January 2013
Malaysia
Far-right non-governmental organizations have been appropriating human rights language in Malaysia.
South Korea
Since the founding of the South Korea in 1948, authoritarian conservative dictatorships such as Syngman Rhee, Park Chung-hee, and Chun Doo-hwan have continued until 1987.
Yoon Suk Yeol, who has been sworn in as South Korea's president since 2022, is criticized for far-right political views.
Taiwan (Republic of China)
= Before 1992
=
In 1947, the February 28 incident was created by the Kuomintang–led nationalist government. In the aftermath of this incident, Martial law in Taiwan, martial law was enforced in Taiwan from 1949, and the Retreat of the government of Republic of China to Taiwan, Great Retreat took place the same year. Chiang Kai-shek ruled authoritarian conservative, Anti-communism in China#Taiwan, anti-communist and Chinese ultranationalist. Until martial law was lifted in 1987, Taiwanese nationalists, leftists and Liberalism, liberals were politically suppressed.
= After 1992
=
In modern Taiwanese politics after 1992 Consensus, the 'mainstream' political left advocated Taiwanese nationalism (including Taiwan independence movement, independence) and the political right defended Chinese nationalism (including Chinese unification, unification). As a result, Taiwan's political landscape is somewhat unique from Western countries; the "far-right" New Party (Taiwan), New Party, Patriot Alliance Association,
Chinese Unification Promotion Party,
and others advocate for one country, two systems, the unification policy proposed by the Chinese Communist Party. These far-right [Chinese] nationalists are sometimes referred to as "radical pro-unification factions" ().
By contrast, most politicians in the centre-right conservative Kuomintang after History of Taiwan#Democratic reforms, Taiwanese democratization are reject one country, two systems.
Some radical Taiwanese nationalists are also considered far-right: the Taiwan Statebuilding Party is officially a "left-wing" in support of Taiwanese independence, but is also referred to as "far-right" due to Nativism (politics)#Taiwan, anti-Chinese nativism; the Taiwanese Localism Front, a radical anti-communist organization, is also referred to as the far-right;
ultra-nationalistic actions of the pro-independence Pan-Green Coalition (led by the Democratic Progressive Party) have been dubbed the "Green Terror (Taiwan), Green Terror".
Europe
Armenia
The Hosank, Armenian-Aryan Racialist Political Movement and the Adequate Party are the main far-right political movements in Armenia.
Croatia
Individuals and groups in Croatia that employ far-right politics are most often associated with the historical Ustaše movement, hence they have connections to
neo-Nazism
Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
and
neo-fascism
Neo-fascism is a post-World War II far-right ideology which includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, ultraconservatism, racial supremacy, right-wing populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xe ...
. That World War II political movement was an extremist organization at the time supported by the Nazi Party, German Nazis and the National Fascist Party, Italian Fascists. The association with the Ustaše has been called neo-Ustashism by Slavko Goldstein. Most active far-right political parties in Croatia openly state their continuity with the Ustaše.
These include the Croatian Party of Rights and Authentic Croatian Party of Rights.
Croatia's far-right often advocates the false theory that the Jasenovac concentration camp was a "labour camp" where mass murder did not take place.
The coalition led by Miroslav Škoro's far-right Homeland Movement (Croatia), Homeland Movement came third at the 2020 Croatian parliamentary election, 2020 parliamentary election, winning 10.9% of the vote and 16 seats.
Estonia

Estonia's most significant far-right movement was the Vaps movement. Its ideological predecessor Valve Liit was founded by Admiral Johan Pitka and later banned for maligning the government. The organization became politicized quickly Vaps soon turned into a mass fascist movement. In 1933, Estonians voted on Vaps' proposed changes to the constitution and the party later won a large proportion of the vote. However, the State Elder Konstantin Päts declared state of emergency and imprisoned the leadership of the Vaps. In 1935, all political parties were banned. In 1935, a Vaps coup attempt was discovered, which led to the banning of the Finnish Patriotic People's Movement's Blues-and-Blacks, youth wing that had been secretly aiding and arming them.
During World War II, the Estonian Self-Administration was a collaborationist pro-Nazi government set up in Estonia, headed by Vaps member Hjalmar Mäe. In the 21st century, the coalition-governing Conservative People's Party of Estonia been described as far right. The neo-Nazi terrorist organization Feuerkrieg Division was found and operates in the country, with some members of the Conservative People's Party of Estonia having been linked to the Feuerkrieg Division. The party's youth organisation Blue Awakening organises an annual torchlight march through Tallinn on Estonia's Independence Day (Estonia), Independence Day. The event has been harshly criticized by the Simon Wiesenthal Center that described it as "Nuremberg-esque" and likened the ideology of the participants to that of the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#Estonia, Estonian Nazi collaborators.
Finland

In Finland, support for the far right was most widespread between 1920 and 1940 when the Academic Karelia Society, Lapua Movement, Patriotic People's Movement and Vientirauha operated in the country and had hundreds of thousands of members. Far-right groups exercised considerable political power during this period, pressuring the government to outlaw communist parties and newspapers and expel Freemasons from the armed forces. During the Cold War, all parties deemed fascist were banned according to the Paris Peace Treaties and all former fascist activists had to find new political homes. Despite Finlandization, many continued in public life. Three former members of the Waffen SS served as ministers of defense; Sulo Suorttanen and Pekka Malinen as well as Mikko Laaksonen.

The skinhead culture gained momentum during the late 1980s and peaked during the late 1990s. Numerous hate crimes were committed against refugees, including a number of racially motivated murders.
Today, the most prominent neo-Nazi group is the
Nordic Resistance Movement, which is tied to multiple murders, attempted murders and assaults of political enemies was found in 2006 and proscribed in 2019. Prominent far-right parties include the Blue-and-Black Movement and Power Belongs to the People. The second biggest Finnish party, the Finns Party, has been described as far right.
The former leader of the Finns party and current speaker of the Parliament Jussi Halla-aho, has been convicted of hate speech due to his comments stating that, "Prophet Muhammad was a pedophile and Islam justifies pedophilia and Pedophilia was Allah's will." Finns Party members have frequently supported far-right and neo-Nazi movements such as the Finnish Defense League, Soldiers of Odin, Nordic Resistance Movement, Rajat Kiinni (Close the Borders), and Suomi Ensin (Finland First). " In the 1990s and 2000s, before the breakthrough of the Finns Party, a few neo-Nazi candidates enjoyed success, like Janne Kujala of Finland - Fatherland (founded as Aryan Germanic Brotherhood) and Jouni Lanamäki who was previously associated with the Nordic Reich Party.
[Juho Jokinen]
Jouni Lanamäki kuohutti 1990-luvulla rasismilla, vetäytyi julkisuudesta ja loi kaikessa hiljaisuudessa karaokebaarien imperiumin Helsinkiin – Nyt hän avaa suunsa 25 vuoden jälkeen
(vain tilaajille) Helsingin Sanomat 4.10.2017. Pekka Siitoin of the National Democratic Party (Finland), National Democracy Party was the fifth most popular candidate in Naantali city council elections.
The NRM and Finns party and other far-right groups organize 612 march, an annual torch march demonstration in Helsinki in memory of the Finnish SS-battalion on the Independence Day (Finland), Finnish independence day which ends at the Hietaniemi cemetery where members visit the tomb of Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim and the monument to the Finnish SS Battalion. The event is protested by antifascists, leading to counterdemonstrators being violently assaulted by NRM members who act as security. The demonstration attracts close to 3,000 participants according to the estimates of the police and hundreds of officers patrol Helsinki to prevent violent clashes.
France

The largest far-right party in Europe is the French anti-immigration party National Rally (France), National Rally, formally known as the National Front. The party was founded in 1972, uniting a variety of French far-right groups under the leadership of Jean-Marie Le Pen. Since 1984, it has been the major force of French nationalism. Jean-Marie Le Pen's daughter Marine Le Pen was elected to succeed him as party leader in 2012. Under Jean-Marie Le Pen's leadership, the party sparked outrage for hate speech, including Holocaust denial and Islamophobia.
Germany

In 1945, the Allies of World War II, Allied powers took control of Germany and banned the swastika, Nazi Party and the publication of . Explicitly Nazi and
neo-Nazi
Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
organizations are banned in Germany.
In 1960, the West German parliament voted unanimously to "make it illegal to incite hatred, to provoke violence, or to insult, ridicule or defame 'parts of the population' in a manner apt to breach the peace." German law outlaws anything that "approves of, glorifies or justifies the violent and despotic rule of the National Socialists."
Section 86a of the ''Strafgesetzbuch'' (Criminal Code) outlaws any "use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations" outside the contexts of "art or science, research or teaching". The law primarily outlaws the use of Nazi symbols, flags, insignia, uniforms, slogans and forms of greeting.
In the 21st century, the German far right consists of various small parties and two larger groups, namely Alternative for Germany (AfD) and Pegida.
In March 2021, the Germany domestic intelligence agency Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution placed the AfD under surveillance, the first time in the post-war period that a main opposition party had been subjected to such scrutiny.
In contemporary Germany, Far-right parties such as
National Democratic Party of Germany
National Democratic Party of Germany (, NPD), officially called The Homeland () since 2023, is a Far-right politics, far-right, Neo-Nazism, neo-Nazi and Ultranationalism, ultranationalist political party in Germany. It was founded in 1964 as ...
(NPD), German People's Union (DVU) and Alternative for Germany (AfD) are stronger in New states of Germany, eastern Germany.
Greece
= Metaxism
=

The far right in Greece first came to power under the ideology of Metaxism, a proto-fascist ideology developed by dictator Ioannis Metaxas.
Metaxism called for the regeneration of the Greek nation and the establishment of an ethnically homogeneous state.
[Gert Sørensen, Robert Mallett. International fascism, 1919–45. London; Portland, Oregon: Frank Cass Publishers, 2002. p. 159.] Metaxism disparaged
liberalism
Liberalism is a Political philosophy, political and moral philosophy based on the Individual rights, rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, the right to private property, and equality before the law. ...
, and held individual interests to be subordinate to those of the nation, seeking to mobilize the Greek people as a disciplined mass in service to the creation of a "new Greece".
The Metaxas government and its official doctrines are often compared to conventional totalitarian-conservative dictatorships such as Francisco Franco's Francoist Spain, Spain or António de Oliveira Salazar's Estado Novo (Portugal), Portugal.
[Lee, Stephen J. 2000. ]
European Dictatorships, 1918–1945
' Routledge; 2 edition (2000). . The Metaxist government derived its authority from the conservative establishment and its doctrines strongly supported traditional institutions such as the Greek Orthodox Church and the Greek Royal Family; essentially
reactionary
In politics, a reactionary is a person who favors a return to a previous state of society which they believe possessed positive characteristics absent from contemporary.''The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought'' Third Edition, (1999) p. 729. ...
, it lacked the radical theoretical dimensions of ideologies such as
Italian Fascism
Italian fascism (), also called classical fascism and Fascism, is the original fascist ideology, which Giovanni Gentile and Benito Mussolini developed in Italy. The ideology of Italian fascism is associated with a series of political parties le ...
and nazism, German Nazism.
= Axis occupation of Greece and aftermath
=
The Metaxis regime came to an end after the Axis powers invaded Greece. The Axis occupation of Greece began in April 1941. The occupation ruined the Greek economy and brought about terrible hardships for the Greek civilian population. The Jewish population of Greece was nearly eradicated. Of its pre-war population of 75–77,000, only around 11–12,000 survived, either by joining the resistance or being hidden. Following the short-lived interim government of Georgios Papandreou, the military seized power in Greece during the 1967 Greek coup d'état, replacing the interim government with the right-wing United States-backed Greek junta. The Junta was a series of military juntas that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974. The dictatorship was characterised by right-wing cultural policies, restrictions on civil liberties and the imprisonment, torture and exile of Greek anti-junta movement, political opponents. The junta's rule ended on 24 July 1974 under the pressure of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, leading to the Metapolitefsi ("regime change") to democracy and the establishment of the Third Hellenic Republic.
Until 2019, the dominant far-right party in Greece in the 21st century was the
neo-Nazi
Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
and Mataxist inspired Golden Dawn (political party), Golden Dawn. At the May 2012 Greek legislative election, Golden Dawn won 21 seats in the Hellenic Parliament, receiving 6.97% of the vote. It became the third largest party in the Greek Parliament with 17 seats after the January 2015 Greek legislative election, January 2015 election, winning 6.28% of the vote.
Founded by Nikolaos Michaloliakos, Golden Dawn had its origins in the movement that worked towards a return to right-wing military dictatorship in Greece. Following an investigation into the 2013 murder of Pavlos Fyssas, an anti-fascist rapper, by a supporter of the party, Michaloliakos and several other Golden Dawn parliamentarians and members were arrested and held in pre-trial detention on suspicion of forming a criminal organization. The trial began on 20 April 2015 and eventually led to the conviction of 7 of its leaders for heading a criminal organisation and 61 other defendants for participating in a criminal organisation. Guilty verdicts on charges of murder, attempted murder, and violent attacks on immigrants and left-wing political opponents were also delivered and prison sentences of a combined total of over 500 years were handed out.
Golden Dawn later lost all of its remaining seats in the Greek Parliament in the 2019 Greek legislative election, and a 2020 survey showed the party's popularity plummeting to just 1.5%, down from 2.9% in previous year's elections. This means that the largest party in Greece that is considered right wing to far right is Greek Solution, which has been described as ideologically ultranationalist
and Right-wing populism, right-wing populist. The party garnered 3.7% of the vote in the 2019 Greek legislative election, winning 10 out of the 300 seats in the Hellenic Parliament and 4.18% of the vote in the 2019 European Parliament election in Greece, winning one seat in the European Parliament.
Italy
The far right has maintained a continuous political presence in Italy since the fall of Mussolini. The
neo-fascist
Neo-fascism is a post-World War II far-right ideology which includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, ultraconservatism, racial supremacy, right-wing populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xe ...
party Italian Social Movement (1946–1995), influenced by the previous Italian Social Republic (1943–1945), became one of the chief reference points for the European far-right from the end of World War II until the late 1980s.
Silvio Berlusconi and his party dominated politics from 1994. According to some scholars, it gave neo-fascism a new respectability.
Caio Giulio Cesare Mussolini, great-grandson of
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...
, stood for the 2019 European Parliament election in Italy, 2019 European Parliament election as a member of the far right Brothers of Italy party.
In 2011, it was estimated that the neo-fascist CasaPound party had 5,000 members. The name is derived from the fascist poet Ezra Pound. It has also been influenced by the Congress of Verona (1943), Manifesto of Verona, the Labour Charter of 1927 and social legislation of fascism. There has been collaboration between CasaPound and the identitarian movement.
The European migrant crisis has become an increasingly divisive issue in Italy. Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has been courting far-right voters. His Northern League (Italy), Northern League party has become an anti-immigrant,
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...
movement. Both parties are using Mussolini nostalgia to further their aims.
Netherlands
Despite being neutral, the Netherlands was invaded by Nazi Germany on 10 May 1940 as part of Fall Gelb. About 70% of the country's Jewish population were killed during the occupation, a much higher percentage than comparable countries such as Belgium and France. Most of the south of the country was liberated in the second half of 1944. The rest, especially the west and north of the country still under occupation, suffered from a famine at the end of 1944 known as the Dutch famine of 1944, Hunger Winter. On 5 May 1945, the whole country was finally liberated by the German Instrument of Surrender, total surrender of all German forces. Since the end of World War II, the Netherlands has had a number of small far-right groups and parties, the largest and most successful being the Party for Freedom led by Geert Wilders. Other far-right Dutch groups include the neo-Nazi Dutch People's Union (1973–present), the Centre Party (Netherlands), Centre Party (1982–1986), the Centre Party '86 (1986–1998), the Dutch Block (1992–2000), New National Party (Netherlands), New National Party (1998–2005) and the ultranationalist National Alliance (Netherlands), National Alliance (2003–2007).
Poland
Following the collapse of Communist Poland, a number of far-right groups came to prominence including The National Revival of Poland, the European National Front, the Association for Tradition and Culture "Niklot". The All-Polish Youth and National Radical Camp (1993), National Radical Camp were recreated in 1989 and 1993, respectively becoming Poland's most prominent far-right organizations. In 1995, the Anti-Defamation League estimated the number of far-right and white power skinheads in Poland at 2,000. Since late 2000s smaller fascist groups have merged to form the neo-Nazi Autonome Nationalisten. A number of far-right parties have run candidates in elections including the League of Polish Families, the National Movement (Poland), National Movement with limited success.
In 2019, the Confederation Liberty and Independence had the best performance of any far-right coalition to date, earning 1,256,953 votes which was 6.81% of the total vote in an election that saw a historically high turnout. Members of far-right groups make up a significant portion of those taking part in the annual Independence March in central Warsaw which started in 2009 to mark Independence Day (Poland), Independence Day. About 60,000 were in the 2017 march marking the 99th anniversary of independence, with placards such as "Clean Blood" seen on the march.
Romania
The preeminent far-right party in Romania is the Greater Romania Party, founded in 1991 by Tudor, who was formerly known as a "Poet laureate, court poet" of Romanian Communist Party, Communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and his literary mentor, the writer Eugen Barbu, one year after Tudor launched the ''România Mare'' weekly magazine, which remains the most important propaganda tool of the PRM. Tudor subsequently launched a companion daily newspaper called ''Tricolorul''. The historical expression ''Greater Romania'' refers to the idea of recreating the former Kingdom of Romania which existed during the interwar period. Having been the largest entity to bear the name of ''Romania'', the frontiers were marked with the intent of uniting most territories inhabited by Romanians, ethnic Romanians into a single country and it is now a rallying cry for Romanian nationalists. Due to internal conditions under Communist Romania after World War II, the expression's use was forbidden in publications until after the Romanian Revolution in 1989. The party's initial success was partly attributed to the deep rootedness of Ceaușescu's national communism in Romania.
Both the ideology and the main political focus of the Greater Romania Party are reflected in frequently strongly nationalistic articles written by Tudor. The party has called for the outlawing of the ethnic Hungarian party, the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania, for allegedly plotting the secession of Transylvania.
Russia
The period of development of Russian fascism in the 1930s–1940s was characterized by sympathy for Italian fascism and German
Nazism
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...
and pronounced anti-communism and antisemitism.
Russian fascism has its roots in the movements known in history as the Black Hundreds and the White movement. It was distributed among white émigré circles living in Germany, Manchukuo, and the United States. In Germany and the United States (unlike Manchukuo), they practically did not conduct political activity, limiting themselves to the publication of newspapers and brochures.
Some ideologues of the white movement, such as Ivan Ilyin and Vasily Shulgin, welcomed the coming to power of Mussolini in Italy and Hitler in Germany, offering their comrades-in-arms the fascist "method" as a way to fight socialism, communism, and atheism, godlessness. At the same time, they did not deny fascist political repression and antisemitism and even justified them.
With the outbreak of World War II, Russian fascists in Germany supported Nazi Germany and joined the ranks of Russian collaborators.
Some Russian neo-Nazi organizations are part of the international
World Union of National Socialists (WUNS, founded in 1962). As of 2012, six Russian organizations are among the officially registered members of the union: National Resistance, National Socialist Movement – Russian Division, All-Russian Public Patriotic Movement "Russian National Unity", National Socialist Movement "Slavic Union (Russia), Slavic Union" (prohibited by a court decision in June 2010), and others. The following organizations are not included in WUNS: the National Socialist Society (banned by a court decision in 2010), the Russian All-National Union (banned in September 2011), and others, such as skinheads: Legion Werewolf (liquidated in 1996), Schultz-88 (liquidated in 2006), White Wolves (liquidated in 2008–2010), New Order (ceased to exist), Russian goal (ceased to exist), and others. Some of the more radical neo-Nazi organizations, using terrorist methods, belonged to skinhead groups such as the Werewolf Legion (liquidated in 1996), Schultz-88 (liquidated in 2006), White Wolves (liquidated in 2008–2010), New Order (ceased to exist), "Russian Goal" (ceased to exist), and others.
Until the end of the 1990s, one of the largest parties of Russian national extremists was the neo-Nazi socio-political movement "Russian National Unity" (RNE), founded by Alexander Barkashov in 1990. At the end of 1999, the RNE made an unsuccessful attempt to take part in the elections to the State Duma. Barkashov considered "true Orthodoxy" as a fusion of Christianity with paganism and advocated the "Russian God" and the "Aryan swastika" allegedly associated with it. He wrote about the Atlanteans, the Etruscans, and the "Aryan race, Aryan" civilization as the direct predecessors of the Russian nation, in a centuries-old struggle with the "Semites", the "Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory, world Jewish conspiracy", and the "dominance of the Jews in Russia". The symbol of the movement was a modified swastika. Barkashov was a parishioner of the "Russian True Orthodox Church (Lazar Zhurbenko), True Orthodox ("Catacomb") Church", and the first cells of the RNE were formed as brotherhoods and communities of the RTOC.
The ideology of Russian neo-Nazism is closely connected with the ideology of Slavic Native Faith, Slavic neo-paganism (rodnovery). In a number of cases, there are also organizational ties between neo-Nazis and neo-pagans. One of the founders of Russian neo-paganism, the former dissident Alexey Dobrovolsky (pagan name – Dobroslav) shared the ideas of Nazism and transferred them to his neo-pagan teaching.
Modern Russian neo-paganism took shape in the second half of the 1970s and is associated with the activities of Dobrovolsky and Moscow Arabist Valery Yemelyanov (neo-pagan name – Velemir),[ both supporters of antisemitism. Rodnoverie is a popular religion among Russian white power skinhead, skinheads. These skinheads, however, do not usually practice their religion.
Historian Dmitry Shlapentokh wrote that, as in Europe, neo-paganism in Russia pushes some of its adherents to antisemitism. This antisemitism is closely related to negative attitudes towards Asians, and this emphasis on racial factors can lead neo-pagans to neo-Nazism. The tendency of neo-pagans to antisemitism is a logical development of the ideas of neo-paganism and imitation of the Nazis, and is also a consequence of a number of specific conditions of modern Russian politics. Unlike previous regimes, the modern Russian political regime, as well as the ideology of the middle class, combines support for Orthodoxy with philosemitism and a positive attitude towards Muslims. These features of the regime contributed to the formation of specific views of neo-Nazi neo-pagans, which are represented to a large extent among the socially unprotected and marginalized Russian youth. In their opinion, power in Russia was usurped by a cabal of conspirators, including hierarchs of the Orthodox Church, Jews, and Muslims. Contrary to external differences, it is believed that these forces have united in their desire to maintain power over the Russian "Aryans".
]
Serbia
In the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, multiple far-right organizations and parties operated during the late Interwar period such as the Yugoslav National Movement (Zbor), Yugoslav Radical Union (JRZ) and Organization of Yugoslav Nationalists (ORJUNA). Zbor was headed by Dimitrije Ljotić, who during the World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
collaborated with the Axis powers. Ljotić was a supporter of Italian fascism, and he advocated for the establishment of a Centralized government, centralized Yugoslav state that would be dominated by Serbs, and a return to Christian traditions. Zbor was the only registered political party in Yugoslavia that openly promoted antisemitism and xenophobia
Xenophobia (from (), 'strange, foreign, or alien', and (), 'fear') is the fear or dislike of anything that is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression that is based on the perception that a conflict exists between an in-gr ...
. JRZ was registered as a political party in 1934 by Milan Stojadinović, a right-wing politician who expressed his support towards Italian fascism during his premiership. JRZ was initially a coalition made up of Stojadinović's, Anton Korošec's and Mehmed Spaho's supporters, and the party was the main stronghold for Yugoslavism, Yugoslav ethnic nationalists and supporters of Karađorđević dynasty. ORJUNA was a prominent organization in the 1920s that was influenced by fascism. During World War II, Chetniks, an Ethnic nationalism, ethnic ultranationalist movement rose to prominence. Chetniks were staunchly anti-communist and they supported monarchism and the creation of a Greater Serbian state. They, including their leader Draža Mihailović, extensively collaborated with the Axis powers in the second half of the World War II against their common enemy, the Yugoslav Partisans.
After the re-establishment of the multi-party system in Socialist Republic of Serbia, Serbia in 1990, multiple right-wing movements and parties began getting popularity from which the Serbian Radical Party was the most successful. Vojislav Šešelj, who founded the party, promoted popular notions of "international conspiracy against the Serbs" during the 1990s which gained him popularity in the 1992 Serbian general election, 1992 and 1997 Serbian general election, 1997 election. During the 1990s, SRS has been also described as Neofascism, neofascist due to their vocal support of Ultranationalism, ethnic ultranationalism and Serbian irredentism, irredentism. Its popularity went into decline after the 2008 Serbian parliamentary election, 2008 election when its acting leader Tomislav Nikolić seceded from the party to form the Serbian Progressive Party. Besides SRS, during the 2000s multiple neofascist and Neo-Nazism, Neo-Nazi movements began getting popular, such as Nacionalni stroj, Obraz (organization), Obraz and 1389 Movement. Dveri, an organization turned political party, was also a prominent promoter of far-right content, and they were mainly known for their Clerical fascism, clerical-fascist, Social conservatism, socially conservative and Anti-Western sentiment, anti-Western stances. Since 2019, the far-right Serbian Party Oathkeepers has gained popularity mainly due to their ultranationalist views, including the openly neofascist Leviathan Movement.
Slovenia
Spain
United Kingdom
The British far-right rose out of the fascist movement. In 1932, Oswald Mosley founded the British Union of Fascists (BUF) which was banned during World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. Founded in 1954 by A. K. Chesterton, the League of Empire Loyalists became the main British far-right group at the time. It was a pressure group rather than a political party, and did not contest elections. Most of its members were part of the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party and were known for politically embarrassing stunts at party conferences. Other fascist parties included the White Defence League and the National Labour Party (UK 1950s), National Labour Party who merged in 1960 to form the second British National Party (1960s), British National Party (BNP).
With the decline of the British Empire becoming inevitable, British far-right parties turned their attention to internal matters. The 1950s had seen an increase in immigration to the UK from its former colonies, particularly India, Pakistan, the Caribbean and Uganda. Led by John Bean (politician), John Bean and Andrew Fountaine, the BNP opposed the admittance of these people to the UK. A number of its rallies such as one in 1962 in Trafalgar Square ended in race riots. After a few early successes, the party got into difficulties and was destroyed by internal arguments. In 1967 it joined forces with John Tyndall (politician), John Tyndall and the remnants of Chesterton's League of Empire Loyalists to form Britain's largest far-right organisation, the British National Front, National Front (NF). The BNP and the NF supported extreme Ulster loyalism, loyalism in Northern Ireland, and attracted Conservative Party members who had become disillusioned after Harold Macmillan had recognised the right to independence of the African colonies and had criticised South Africa under apartheid, Apartheid in South Africa.
Some Northern Irish loyalist paramilitaries have links with far-right and Neo-Nazism, neo-Nazi groups in Britain, including Combat 18, the British Movement, British National Socialist Movement and the NF. In 2004, ''The Guardian'' reported that loyalist paramilitaries had been responsible for numerous racist attacks in loyalist areas. During the 1970s, the NF's rallies became a regular feature of British politics. Election results remained strong in a few working-class urban areas, with a number of local council seats won, but the party never came anywhere near winning representation in parliament.
Since the 1970s, the NF's support has been in decline whilst Nick Griffin and the current British National Party (BNP) grew in popularity. Around the turn of the 21st century, the BNP won a number of council seats. At its peak in the late 2000s, the party had 54 local council seats, one seat in the London Assembly, two seats in the European Parliament, and were the official opposition in the Barking and Dagenham London Borough Council. The party received almost a million votes in the 2009 European Parliament elections, and contested the majority of UK parliamentary seats in the 2010 United Kingdom general election, 2010 general election. The party's membership was 12,632 and its financial resources were an estimated £1,983,947. The BNP would record their highest ever vote in a general election with half a million or 1.9% of the popular vote. This is the highest ever vote for a British Far-right politics in the United Kingdom, Far-right party.
By the early 2010s the BNP saw its support and membership quickly collapse due to internal divisions caused by a disappointing performance in the 2010 elections. Griffin was ousted as leader in 2014 after losing his European Parliament seat, and since then the party has been in terminal decline under the leadership of Adam Walker (British politician), Adam Walker.
A number of breakaway groups have been established by former members of the BNP, such as Britain First by ex-councillor Paul Golding, the British Democrats by ex-MEP and 2011 British National Party leadership election, leadership candidate Andrew Brons, as well as Patriotic Alternative by Mark Collett. UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage claimed that his party absorbed much of the BNP's former voters during their electoral peak in the early 2010s. The party was accused of shifting towards far-right, anti-Islam politics under the leadership of Paul Nuttall and Gerard Batten during its decline in the late 2010s. Anti-Islam activist and former UKIP 2017 UK Independence Party leadership election, leadership candidate Anne Marie Waters established the far-right For Britain Movement, which gained a small number of ex-BNP councillors. It was deregistered in 2022, and subsequently a large portion of prominent far-right activists began coalescing around the British Democrats, which (following UKIP's loss of its few councillors on 4 May 2023, leaving it with only a few parish and town councillors) quickly established itself as the UK's only far-right party with any electoral representation.
Oceania
Australia
Coming to prominence in Sydney with the formation of the New Guard (1931) and the Centre Party (New South Wales), Centre Party (1933), the far right has played a part in Australian political discourse since the second world war. These proto-fascist groups were monarchist, anti-communist and authoritarian in nature. Early far-right groups were followed by the explicitly fascist Australia First Movement (1941). The far right in Australia went on to acquire more explicitly racial connotations during the 1960s and 1970s, morphing into self-proclaimed Nazism, Nazi, fascism, fascist and antisemitic movements, organisations that opposed non-white and non-Christian immigration such as the neo-Nazi
Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
National Socialist Party of Australia (1967) and the militant white supremacist group National Action (Australia), National Action (1982).
Since the 1980s, the term has mainly been used to describe those who express the wish to preserve what they perceive to be Judeo-Christian, Anglo-Australian culture and those who campaign against Aboriginal land rights, multiculturalism in Australia, multiculturalism, immigration in Australia, immigration and asylum in Australia, asylum seekers. Since 2001, Australia has seen the development of modern neo-Nazi, neo-fascist
Neo-fascism is a post-World War II far-right ideology which includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, ultraconservatism, racial supremacy, right-wing populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xe ...
or alt-right groups such as the True Blue Crew, the United Patriots Front, Fraser Anning's Conservative National Party and the Antipodean Resistance.
New Zealand
A small number of far-right organisations have existed in New Zealand since World War II, including the Conservative Front, the New Zealand National Front and the National Democrats Party. Far-right parties in New Zealand lack significant support, with their protests often dwarfed by counter protest. After the Christchurch mosque shootings in 2019, the National Front "publicly shut up shop" and largely went underground like other far-right groups.
Fiji
= Nationalist Vanua Tako Lavo Party
=
The Nationalist Vanua Tako Lavo Party was a far-right political party which advocated Fijian ethnic nationalism
Ethnic nationalism, also known as ethnonationalism, is a form of nationalism wherein the nation and nationality are defined in terms of ethnicity, with emphasis on an ethnocentric (and in some cases an ethnostate/ethnocratic) approach to variou ...
. In 2009, party leader Iliesa Duvuloco was arrested for breaching the military regime's emergency laws by distributing pamphlets calling for an uprising against the military regime. In January 2013, the military regime introduced regulations that essentially de-registered the party.
Pan-national
European Union
The development of a pan-European identity among far-right members of the European parliament has been claimed.
Islamic extremism
Some Islamic extremism, Islamic extremists view Islam superior to all other ideologies and Kafir, non-Muslims as inferior. Some Islamic extremism can be seen as far-right, and can have some social acceptance in some countries. Dhimmi refers to the inferior status of non-Muslims in some historic Islamic states.
Online
A number of far-right internet pages and forums are focused on and frequented by the far right. These include Stormfront and Iron March.
Far-right internet movements gained popularity and notoriety online in 2012, and this has not stopped. In the United States, they gained many followers during the 2016 United States presidential election, 2016 presidential election, the time after the election during Obama's last months in office in 2016, and in 2017.
Stormfront
Stormfront is the oldest and most prominent neo-Nazi
Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
website, described by the Southern Poverty Law Center and other media organizations as the "murder capital of the internet". In August 2017, Stormfront was taken offline for just over a month when its Domain name registrar, registrar seized its domain name due to complaints that it promoted hatred and that some of its members were linked to murder. The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law claimed credit for the action after advocating for Stormfront's web host, Network Solutions, to enforce its Terms of Service agreement which prohibits users from using its services to incite violence.
Iron March
Iron March was a fascist web forum founded in 2011 by Russian nationalist Alexander "Slavros" Mukhitdinov. An unknown individual uploaded a database of Iron March users to the Internet Archive in November 2019 and multiple neo-Nazi users were identified, including an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE detention center captain and several active members of the United States Armed Forces. As of mid 2018, the Southern Poverty Law Center linked Iron March to nearly 100 murders. Mukhitdinov remained a murky figure at the time of the leaks.
Terrorgram
The Terrorgram community on Telegram (software), Telegram is a network of Telegram channels and accounts that subscribe to and promote militant accelerationism. Terrorgram channels are neofascist in ideology, and regularly share instructions and manuals on how to carry out acts of racially-motivated violence and anti-government, anti-authority terrorism. In 2021, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), an international think-tank, exposed more than two hundred neo-Nazi pro-terrorism telegram channels that make up the Terrorgram network, many of which contained instructions to build weapons and bombs.
Right-wing terrorism
Right-wing terrorism is terrorism motivated by a variety of far right ideologies and beliefs, including anti-communism, neo-fascism
Neo-fascism is a post-World War II far-right ideology which includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, ultraconservatism, racial supremacy, right-wing populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xe ...
, neo-Nazism
Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
, racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...
, xenophobia
Xenophobia (from (), 'strange, foreign, or alien', and (), 'fear') is the fear or dislike of anything that is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression that is based on the perception that a conflict exists between an in-gr ...
and opposition to immigration
Opposition to immigration, also known as anti-immigration, is a political position that seeks to restrict immigration. In the modern sense, immigration refers to the entry of people from one state or territory into another state or territory in ...
. This type of terrorism has been sporadic, with little or no international cooperation. Modern right-wing terrorism first appeared in western Europe in the 1980s and it first appeared in Eastern Europe following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Right-wing terrorists aim to overthrow governments and replace them with nationalist or fascist-oriented governments. The core of this movement includes white power skinhead, neo-fascist skinheads, far-right Football hooliganism, hooligans, youth sympathisers and intellectual guides who believe that the state must rid itself of foreign elements in order to protect rightful citizens. However, they usually lack a rigid ideology.[Moghadam, Assaf. ]
The Roots of Terrorism
'. pp. 57–58. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2006. .
According to Cas Mudde
Cas Mudde (born 3 June 1967) is a Dutch political science, political scientist who focuses on Extremism, political extremism and populism in Europe and the United States. His research includes the areas of political parties, extremism, democracy, ...
, far-right terrorism and violence in the West have been generally perpetrated in recent times by individuals or groups of individuals "who have at best a peripheral association" with politically relevant organizations of the far right. Nevertheless, Mudde follows, "in recent years far-right violence has become more planned, regular, and lethal, as terrorists attacks in Christchurch mosque shootings, Christchurch (2019), Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, Pittsburgh (2018), and 2011 Norway attacks, Norway (2011) show."
See also
* Antifeminism
* European New Right
* Far-left politics
* History of the far-right in Spain
* Manosphere
* Religious exclusivism
* Right-wing authoritarianism
* White ethnostate
* White power
* French anti-Southern sentiment during the Third Republic
References
Bibliography
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Notes
Further reading
* Akkerman, Tjitske, Sarah L. de Lange and Matthijs Rooduijn, eds. ''Radical Right-Wing Populist Parties in Western Europe'' (2016)
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* Davies, Peter, and Derek Lynch, eds. ''The Routledge companion to fascism and the far right'' (Psychology Press, 2002).
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* Kundnani, A
''Blind Spot? Security Narratives and Far-Right Violence in Europe'' (International Centre for Counter-TerrorismThe Hague, 2012)
* Lazaridis, Gabriella, Giovanna Campani, and Annie Benveniste (eds.) ''The Rise of the Far Right in Europe: Populist Shifts and 'Othering' '' (2016)
* Macklin, Graham. "Transnational networking on the far right: The case of Britain and Germany." ''West European Politics'' 36.1 (2013): 176–198.
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* Mieriņa, Inta, and Ilze Koroļeva. "Support for far right ideology and anti‐migrant attitudes among youth in Europe: A comparative analysis." ''Sociological Review'' 63 (2015): 183–205
online
* Mudde, Cas. ''Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe'' (2007)
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Far Right
Far-right politics,
Political terminology
Political spectrum