Europe for the Europeans

Abstract

This chapter explains the Central European situation, with a particular focus on Poland. It presents the ideological and organizational contours of the Central European radical right and the role of the geopolitical order in which these new democracies find themselves, on the way from state socialism in the Warsaw Pact to market capitalism and the EU. In Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the radical right played a minor role in the 2004 European elections; in Poland it was the clear winner. But the EU as an issue does not contribute much by itself. Rather, larger issues of national identity, the strength of nationalist traditions, and country-specific features may supersede narrow foreign policy concerns. The mobilization potential for the radical right in central Europe seems rather large, but not significantly larger than in Western democracies. Survey data reveals sizeable currents of nationalism, anti-Semitism and right-wing self-identification among the populations of various countries in the region.