Right-wing populists are firmly established in the political party landscape in 2018. They are represented in 17 out of 28 European parliaments and are even part of the ruling government in countries such as Austria and Italy. Germany’s Federal Agency for Civic Education classifies right-wing populist parties as falling between conservatism and right-wing extremism. Despite having considerable policy differences in some regards, right-wing populist parties have the following in common: They portray themselves as an anti-establishment group that will push for the supposed will of the people. That includes rejecting immigration, especially from Islamic countries.

The second graphic shows how right-wing populist parties that are currently represented in parliaments have gained vote shares. It makes clear that this trend towards the right is not going away anytime soon. Right-wing populism in the EU has enjoyed a nearly unbroken rise since the ‘80s. Since the mid-2000s, the vote shares for right-wing populist parties in their respective parliaments have clearly grown - they have also become stronger in countries where right-wing populism was never seen before.