The record score achieved by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in elections Sunday is a new boost for hard-right parties in Europe. Here is an overview of the rise of the nationalist right:
In power: Italy and Hungary
In Italy in 2022, Giorgia Meloni’s neo-Fascist Brothers of Italy party achieved a historic victory in parliamentary elections.
She has since led the government in coalition with another far-right party, Matteo Salvini’s anti-immigrant League, and the conservative Forza Italia, founded by former premier Silvio Berlusconi.
Meloni was the only European leader to attend the inauguration of US President Donald Trump in January.
In Hungary, the nationalist Viktor Orban has been Prime Minister since 2010 and was re-elected in April 2022 for a fourth consecutive term.
This followed the overwhelming victory of his party, Fidesz, in elections.
Orban is now gearing up for parliamentary elections in 2026, challenged by Peter Magyar, a lawyer and former diplomat turned Orban critic, from the conservative TISZA.
In coalition: Netherlands, Slovakia, Finland
In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders, whose far-right Freedom Party (PVV) topped legislative elections in 2023, reached almost six months later in May 2024, a coalition agreement with three right-wing parties.
He had to give up his ambitions to become premier as some parties threatened to split due to his anti-Islam and Eurosceptic positions.
Instead a senior official, Dick Schoof, became prime minister.
In Slovakia, the nationalist SNS party is part of a three-party governing coalition led by nationalist-leaning Prime Minister Robert Fico of the centrist Smer-SD party. Fico, who returned to power in 2023, is one of the Kremlin’s few allies in Europe. He was the target of an assassination attempt last year.
In Finland, the Finns Party, a far-right formation that came second in the 2023 legislative elections, is a member of the ruling coalition formed by conservative Petteri Orpo, whose centre-right National Coalition won the elections.
Influencers: Sweden
The far-right party Sweden Democrats (SD), which came second in the 2022 legislative elections, does not have a representative in government but is closely associated with its decisions.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s centre-right majority government is backed in parliament by the SD and the coalition programme includes a sharp reduction in immigration.
Electoral successes: Austria, France
Elsewhere in Europe far-right parties have been on the brink of power without making a final breakthrough.
In Austria in September 2024 the far-right Freedom party (FPOe) topped polls for the first time.
The party, which was founded by former Nazis and is now led by Herbert Kickl, has since scrambled to find partners to govern.
In January Kickl invited the conservative People’s Party (OeVP) to start negotiations, but the talks broke down on February 12.
The two parties have however managed to form coalitions to govern five of Austria’s nine regions.
In France, a left-wing alliance formed for the 2024 legislative elections and managed to block the rise to power of the far-right National Rally (RN).
However, RN, whose leader Marine Le Pen reached the run-off round in the last two presidential elections, is now the largest party in the French parliament without a majority.
Breakthroughs: Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Britain
In Germany the AfD, which was endorsed by senior figures in US President Donald Trump’s administration, doubled its score in Sunday’s legislative elections, reaching 20.8 percent, behind the Christian Democrats, who have ruled out forming a coalition government with them.
In Belgium, during the June 2024 legislative campaign, the far-right Vlaams Belang was predicted to win according to polls in Flanders, the most populated region.
But the N-VA, party of Prime Minister Bart De Wever, eventually maintained its leadership.
However, the VB increased its scores in the Flemish Parliament, where it holds 31 of the 124 seats, and at the federal level in the Chamber, where it forms the largest opposition group with 20 deputies.
Portugal’s far-right Chega (Enough) party strengthened its status as the country’s third political force, increasing its seats from 12 to 50, with a score of 18 percent in March 2024 legislative elections.
In Britain’s July 2024 general election, in which Keir Starmer’s Labour Party won after 14 years of Conservative rule, anti-immigration party Reform UK led by Nigel Farage won just over 14 percent of the vote and five seats in parliament.
