AfD

Shortly after the EPP Group in the European Parliament approved an amendment to its Rules of Procedure, which paved the way for Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party to be suspended from its ranks, the Hungarian PM announced that his party’s MEPs will leave the Group of the Christian Democrats.

Angela Merkel\'s party, CDU, came in first in the German national election. However, this is not a great victory because what\'s important here is that for the first time in post-World War 2 history, an extreme right-wing party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD), came in third in the national election, getting around 13% of the votes.

How much of Austria is hidden in Germany? The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is still far behind in approval ratings as is the FPÖ in Austria but its ideology is no less reactionary than that of the Freedom Party and thus, unfortunately, similarly seductive.

Much has been written on the reasons for the rise and fall or right-wing populist parties in Western Europe, as the French Front National (FN) or the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). However, most of these commentaries are not based on empirical research. The presented overview highlights the seven factors which comparative research defines as decisive for the electoral fortunes of right-wing populist parties in Western Europe.

It seems that Merkel is willing to create a big and strong coalition with German socialists and, as it is in politics, it means a lot of compromises in the field of economy, austerity measures and social policy.

However, the party missed the absolute majority and lost its coalition partner, the liberal FDP.