Monday, November 13th, 2017 Radical Right and Extreme-Right parties in Europe: asserting their political and ideological influence and their transformation from the fringe to the mainstream

Description

In Europe today, staunchly nationalist parties such as France’s National Front and the Austrian Freedom Party are identified as far-right movements, though supporters seldom embrace that label. The European far right represents a confluence of many ideologies: nationalism, socialism, anti-Semitism, authoritarianism. In the first half of the twentieth century, the radical far right achieved its apotheosis in the regimes of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. But these movements have evolved significantly since 1945. The 1980s marked a turning point in political fortunes, as national-populist parties began winning seats in European parliaments. Since the terrorist attacks of 9/11 in the United States, a new wave has unfurled, one that is explicitly anti-immigrant and Islamophobic in outlook.Though Europe’s far-right parties differ in important respects, they are motivated by a common sense of mission: to save their homelands from what they view as the corrosive effects of multiculturalism and globalization by creating a closed-off, ethnically homogeneous society. Members of these movements are increasingly determined to gain power through legitimate electoral means. In democracies across Europe, they are succeeding.

SPEAKERS:

Jean-Yves Camus, Director of the Observatory of Radical Politics at Fondation Jean Jaurès and Associate Fellow at Institut de Relations Internationales et Stratégiques (IRIS), Paris.

Francisco Beltran, chair, Lecturer, Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies

SPONSOR: Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies

SPONSOR: General Consulate of France in Toronto