Where Europe's Far-Right Has Gained Ground

On Wednesday, the far-right populist PVV (Freedom Party), led by Geert Wilders, came out on top in the Dutch parliamentary elections. The Islamophobic party, which has promised to ban mosques and is calling for a freeze on asylum and a more restrictive immigration policy, is expected to win between 35 and 37 of the 150 seats in the Dutch House of Representatives; it previously held just 16.

This map provides an overview of the strength of a selection of parties on the far right of Europe's political spectrum. These political parties have their differences, of course, but can be compared ideologically for, among other things, their strong nationalism and social conservatism.

In the EU, several countries have become particularly effective breeding grounds for right-wing extremism. In Poland, the Law and Justice party (PiS) came to power in 2015. In the 2019 parliamentary elections, the PiS-led United Right coalition managed to retain a majority of seats in the Polish Sejm however the coalition lost its majority in the October 2023 parliamentary elections. Nevertheless, it remains in front, and the PiS currently holds 35 percent of seats (42 percent when including its coalition partners).

In Hungary, Viktor Orbán's Fidesz has already been in power for over ten years, and won a landslide victory in the 2022 parliamentary elections. It currently holds 59 percent of parliamentary seats and forms a governing coalition with the Christian Democrat NKDP. In Austria, the FPÖ came to power in 2017, but after a sharp decline in the 2019 elections, the party now accounts for just 16 percent (down from 28 percent in 2017), a share similar to that achieved by the Rassemblement National after its historic 2022 legislative result in France. In Belgium, the Flemish nationalist party, Vlaams Belang, currently weighs in at 12 percent, while in Germany, the AfD is down to 11 percent after losing 11 seats in the 2021 federal elections.