Exclusionary populism in Western Europe in the 1990s: electoral success and political impact

Abstract

Since the late 1980s, a new type of right-wing party and movement has made considerable electoral gains in a number of liberal democracies in Western Europe. Among the most successful of these parties have been the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), the Belgian Flemish Bloc (VB) and the Norwegian Progress Party (FrP). Other significant parties are the Italian Northern League (LN), the Danish People’s Party (DF) and the two rival movements in France: Jean-Marie Le Pen’s Front National (FN) and Bruno Mégret’s Republican National Movement (MRN). Finally, there are several marginal parties such as the German Republicans (REP), the German People’s Union (DVU), the Danish Progress Party (FP) and the Swiss Freedom Party (FPS) (for an overview, see Betz and Immerfall, 1998; Decker, 2000; Hainsworth, 2000; Perrineau, 2001).