Campus News

Rising right

An article on Mashable highlighted the increased activity of the European populist far-right political parties following the January attacks in Paris. The article focuses on various groups, all with a central theme of anti-Islamic rhetoric, despite coming from different places politically.

UGA’s Cas Mudde, an associate professor in the School of Public and International Affairs and author of Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe, told the website that “The basis of the ideology of Front National and other far right parties is nativism-the idea that a state should be inhabited by members of one nation-and that everyone else…is seen as a threat.”

Mudde also said that many of the parties grew out of nationalist subcultures, some that were linked to fascist movements, others that were connected to mainstream parties like the Conservatives.