From Protest to Power: Right-Wing Politics in Europe since 1989

This chapter traces the waves of right-wing resurgence as identified by Klaus von Beyme and subsequently extended by Cas Mudde and examines the definitional and ideological complexity of right-wing politics. It also analyses the key factors that explain the resurgence, incorporating Piero Ignazi’s theory of the post-industrial silent counter-revolution and examines the central issues—migration, identity and Euroscepticism—that have defined the right-wing political project, drawing on Norris and Inglehart’s cultural backlash thesis and party trajectories across Europe to illustrate the argument.