Radical right (Europe)

In political science, the terms radical right and populist right have been used to refer to the range of European right-wing parties that have grown in support since the late 1970s. Populist right wing groups have shared a number of causes, which typically include opposition to globalization, criticism of immigration and multiculturalism, opposition to the European Union, and social conservatism.

The ideological spectrum of the radical right extends from right-wing populism to white nationalism and neo-fascism. A number of commentators suggest that links to far right movements are overplayed by the media, avoiding dealing with the populist appeal of anti-globalization movements.

The Friedrich Ebert Foundation, in a 2011 book, defines the terms "right wing extremist" and "right wing populist" differently.

In 1996, the Dutch political scientist Cas Mudde noted that in most European countries, the terms "radical right" and "extreme right" were used interchangeably. He cited Germany as an exception, noting that among political scientists in that nation, the term "radical right" (Rechsradikalismus) was used in reference to those right-wing groups which were outside the political mainstream but which did not threaten "the free democratic order"; the term was thus used in contrast to the "extreme right" (Rechsextremen), which referred to groups which did threaten the constitutionality of the state and could therefore be banned under German law.

The term "radical right" originated in U.S. political discourse, where it was applied to various anti-communist groups active in the 1950s era of McCarthyism. The term and accompanying concept then entered Western Europe through the social sciences. Conversely, the term "right-wing extremism" developed among European scholars, particularly those in Germany, to describe right-wing groups that developed in the decades following the Second World War, such as the West German National Democratic Party and the French Poujadists. This term then came to be adopted by some scholars in the U.S.

...
Wikipedia