Episode description

Geert Wilders has been described as the Dutch Donald Trump. Earlier this month his far-right Freedom Party pulled off a surprise election victory in the Netherlands. Following Mr Wilder's win, we look at what is driving right-wing populism in Europe. Italy has a right-wing populist prime minister. In Hungary there is Viktor Orban, Prime Minister since 2010, with his particular brand of nationalist populism, and in Finland the far-right Finns party is now part of the governing coalition.

Are some of the factors that secured Geert Wilders’ win also what is helping other right-wing populists in Europe? In a European context, does right-wing populism differ from far-rights politics?

Shaun Ley is joined by: Catherine Fieschi, a comparative political analyst specialising in populism, far right and authoritarian politics and a Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre at the European University Institute in Florence; Stanley Pignal, The Economist's Brussels bureau chief and writes their Charlemagne column on Europe; Sanne van Oosten, a political scientist at the University of Oxford, Centre on Migration, Policy and Society.

Producer: Max Horberry and Ellen Otzen

(Photo: Dutch far-right politician and leader of the PVV party Geert Wilders meets the press after the PVV won the most seats in the elections, The Hague, Netherlands, 24 Nov, 2023. Credit: Piroschka van de Wouw/Reuters)