Far-right populism and the role of democracy in Europe

Abstract

The occurrence of the financial crisis has affected politics in Europe and led to remarkable political shifts. The electoral rise of far-right populism has been one significant outcome of the crisis and the way it has been addressed by the European government and the EU institutions. The far-right parties has gained significant electoral power in several European countries and actually got out of the margins on national political systems, becoming a crucial political player. Such examples are the neonazist party of "Golden Dawn" in Greece as well as the Lega Nord in Italy and AfD in Germany. Particularly, the intensification of the international economic crisis has led to the transformation of the ideological and political differentiations in the sense that it has brought to light an impressive rise of populist parties in Europe. In any case, populist reliance and its multipliers have grown dramatically amidst the pressure of mass unemployment, new poverty, immigration flows, anger about politics and fear of the future. The aim of this paper is to analyze and categorize the roots of the far-right populist rise in Europe and the role of democracy as a mechanism of stabilization and prevention.