The social and spatial forms of the Far Right across Europe

In this piece, I raise three notes of caution for political geographers attempting to understand the forms that the Far-Right is taking across Europe. First, we need to appreciate the specific contexts within which these groups and parties emerge, taking into account not simply their national political genealogies but also the distinct local circumstances within which they find rooting and success. Secondly, we need to be more critical of the apparent coherence of the Far-Right universe, which is, in fact, much less coherent in terms of organization, orientations and platforms than is commonly assumed. Finally, we need to be cognizant of what I will argue is the most elusive danger posed by such movements: their role in normalizing nativist and revanchist discourses (and, increasingly, actions), taken up in ‘lite’ fashion by more respectable political forces.