Abstract
The far-right in Europe has been a permanent feature in the European countries since the fifties. But for some years the far-right movement, most of the time a mix of populism and nationalism, has an increasing audience among the European population. Earlier it was indeed seen as a marginalized and weird movement; nowadays all these parties have electoral pretensions. In the main European countries, such as in France, Germany, Italy or Belgium the far-right obtains on average 20% of the valid votes in local, legislatives, European and…even in presidential elections sometimes! The far-right is currently a political force which can come to power. Across Europe these parties have been modernized: they have erased the most racist and xenophobic parts in their platforms; they became more respectable. J-M Le Pen in France, Christoph Blöcher in Switzerland, Jörg Haider in Austria, Pim Fortuyn in the Netherlands, the Norwish Progress Party, the North League in Italy, the Vlaams Belang in Belgium. No country seems to spare the far-right movement.
