An explanation of variations in the discourses and electoral success of 25 extreme right parties across 17 European political systems. The book shows how the European extreme right is mapped by the positions of parties and voters on two ideological dimensions, and how the match between these determines electoral success.

In recent years the revival of the far right and anti-Semitic, racist and fascist organizations has posed a significant threat throughout Europe. Mapping the Extreme Right in Contemporary Europe provides a broad geographical overview of the dominant strands within the contemporary radical right in both Western and Eastern Europe. After providing some local and regional perspectives, the book has a series of national case studies of particular countries and regions including: Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Eastern Europe, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Scandinavia, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. A series of thematic chapters examine transnational phenomena such as the use of the Internet, the racist music scene, cultural transfers and interaction between different groups. Drawing together a wide range of contributors, this is essential reading for all those with an interest in contemporary extremism, fascism and comparative party politics.

How do right-wing extremist organizations throughout the world use the Internet as a tool for communication and recruitment? What is its role in identity-building within radical right-wing groups and how do they use the Internet to set their agenda, build contacts, spread their ideology and encourage mobilization? This important contribution to the field of Internet politics adopts a social movement perspective to address and examine these important questions. Conducting a comparative content analysis of more than 500 extreme right organizational web sites from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States, it offers an overview of the Internet communication activities of these groups and systematically maps and analyses the links and structure of the virtual communities of the extreme right. Based on reports from the daily press the book presents a protest event analysis of right wing groups’ mobilisation and action strategies, relating them to their online practices. In doing so it exposes the new challenges and opportunities the Internet presents to the groups themselves and the societies in which they exist.

Beginning with an analysis of the complex relationship between fascism and the post-war extreme right, the book discusses both contemporary parties and the cultural and intellectual influences of the European New Right as well as patterns of socialization and mobilization. It then analyses the effects of a range of factors on the ideological development of right-wing extremism including anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, religious extremism and the approach towards Europe (and the European Union).The final sections investigate a number of activist manifestations of the extreme right from youth participation and the white power music scene to transnational rallies, the Internet and football hooliganism. In the process, the book questions the notion that the contemporary extreme right is either completely novel or fully populist in character. Drawing together a wide range of contributors, this is essential reading for all those with an interest in contemporary extremism and fascism. The book is a companion volume to Mapping the Extreme Right (Routledge, 2012) which has the same editors.

This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. This book provides a comprehensive and detailed analysis of the five main parties of the extreme right in the Netherlands (Centrumdemocraten, Centrumpartij), Belgium (Vlaams Blok), and Germany (Die Republikaner, Deutsche Volksunion). Using primary research — including internal party documents — it concludes that rather than right-wing and extremist, the core ideology of these parties is xenophobic nationalist, including also a mix of law and order and welfare chauvinism. The author's research and conclusions have broader implications for the study of the extreme-right phenomenon and party ideology in general.

As well as providing a detailed biography of Le Pen, the leader of the National Front in France, this book also explores the wider development of the extreme right as a significant intellectual and political force within France.