Right-wing extremism in Europe. Country Analyses, Counter-Strategies and Labor-Market Oriented Exit Strategies

Abstract

How widespread and deeply-imbedded are far-right ideologies and organizations in Europe? How have right-wing extremist and populist parties and movements fared? What are their historical roots, and what is the basis of their continuing attraction? Our volume of collected articles is intended to contribute to the ongoing review of this problem and to suggest the shape that an effective posture against the European radical right might take. It offers a follow-up to a 2011 book issued by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, entitled “Is Europe on the ‘Right’ Path? Right-wing extremism and right-wing populism in Europe.” The new anthology, like its predecessor, is being published simultaneously in German and English. It is the concluding publication of the German XENOS special program known as “Exit to Enter.” Between 2009 and 2013, the European Social Fund (ESF) and Germany’s Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS) provided grants to fund projects designed to help people not only to exit the far-right milieu, but also to enter the labor-market with some prospects for success. The insights gathered over the course of the Exit to Enter program will be discussed in this book. While the volume includes studies of numerous countries, it focuses on two regions of special concern: namely, Central/Eastern and Southern Europe. In the latter region, the three countries chosen for analysis – Greece, Italy, and Portugal – all have been hard hit by the current fi nancial and economic crisis along with its devastating social impacts, but the far- right camps in those countries differ strikingly from one another. In addition to the country analyses, the volume contains an article offering an overview of trends and structures of the radical right in Europe, as well as several essays dealing with counter-strategies, historical experiences, and perspectives on the confrontation with right-wing extremism.