Understanding the Populist Shift Othering in a Europe in Crisis [Hardcover]

During the European elections of 2014, one of the main issues raised by the media was the electoral performance of so called populist parties. The electorate confirmed its deep dissatisfaction with mainstream political parties, voting for far right parties in parliamentary elections in Northern Europe (Austria, Denmark, Sweden), Eastern Europe (Hungary, where the deeply anti-Semitic Jobbik party gained votes) and in France (where the French National Front won about a quarter of the vote), while in the Southern European countries, battered by austerity policies, it was the radical right and left in Greece (Golden Dawn and Syriza) and the radical left in Spain (Podemos) that obtained excellent scores.

This book examines the growing trend towards far and extreme right populism that has emerged prominently in Northern (Finland), Western (Austria, Denmark, France, the UK), Southern (Greece, Italy) and Central/Eastern Europe (Slovenia, Bulgaria) since the 1990s. Providing a critical understanding of current European trends and analysing the complex phenomena covered by the notion of populism, this book will be of interest to students and scholars researching right-wing politics, as well as European politics more generally.

1. Introduction: the concept and its definitionsGiovanna Campani, Gabriella Lazaridis

2. Populism in historical perspectives Giovanna Campani and Mojca Pajnik

3. The neo-fascist and neo-nazi constellations Giovanna Campani and Birgit Sauer

4. Populist Othering and Islamophobia Anne Benveniste, Gabriella Lazaridis and Heini Puurunen

5. Networks and alliances against the Islamisation of Europe: the case of the Counter Jihad Movement - Gabrielll�