Gabriella Lazaridis is Senior Lecturer at the University of Leicester, UK.

Giovanna Campani is Full Professor of Intercultural Education, Gender Anthropology and Intercultural Communication at UNIFI in Florence, Italy.

1. Introduction: the concept and its definitions

2. Populism in historical perspectives

3. The neo-fascist and neo-nazi constellations

4. Populist Othering and Islamophobia

5. Networks and alliances against the Islamisation of Europe: the case of the Counter Jihad Movement

6. Exclusive intersections: Constructions of gender and sexuality
7. Men's parties with women leaders: A comparative study of the rightwing populist leaders Pia Kjærsgaard, Marine Le Pen and Siv Jensen
8. De/ReConstructing Far-Right Youth: Between the Lost Generation and Contestatory Citizenship

9. Democracy, post-democracy and the populist challenge

During the European elections of 2014, one of the main issues raised by the media was the electoral performance of so called 'populist parties'. The electorate confirmed its deep dissatisfaction with mainstream political parties, voting for far right parties in parliamentary elections in Northern Europe (Austria, Denmark, Sweden), Eastern Europe (Hungary, where the deeply anti-Semitic Jobbik party gained votes) and in France (where the French National Front won about a quarter of the vote), while in the Southern European countries, battered by austerity policies, it was the radical right and left in Greece (Golden Dawn and Syriza) and the radical left in Spain (Podemos) that obtained excellent scores.
This book examines the growing trend towards far and extreme right populism that has emerged prominently in Northern (Finland), Western (Austria, Denmark, France, the UK), Southern (Greece, Italy) and Central/Eastern Europe (Slovenia, Bulgaria) since the 1990s. Providing a critical understanding of current European trends and analysing the complex phenomena covered by the notion of populism, this book will be of interest to students and scholars researching right-wing politics, as well as European politics more generally.