Nearly a quarter of voters in Europe now back far-right parties

France’s National Rally (RN), led by Jordan Bardella, became the largest single party in parliament in 2024. Photograph: Paweł Supernak/EPA View image in fullscreen France’s National Rally (RN), led by Jordan Bardella, became the largest single party in parliament in 2024. Photograph: Paweł Supernak/EPA Nearly a quarter of voters in Europe now back far-right parties Analysis by more than 150 political scientists finds proportion who back such parties has increased nearly fivefold since 1995 Almost one in four voters in Europe now cast their ballot for far-right parties, research shows, a proportion that has grown nearly fivefold since the mid-1990s and climbed particularly steeply over the past three years. Analysis by more than 150 political scientists in 31 countries found the proportion of Europeans voting for a far-right party in their country’s most recent national elections had risen to more than 23%, from about 10% a decade ago and roughly 5% in 1995. The research, led by Matthijs Rooduijn, a political scientist at the University of Amsterdam for the PopuList survey of European far-left, far-right and populist parties, also found that almost 30% of Europeans now vote for anti-establishment parties, another record. “When we started the PopuList project in 2018, the key finding was that one in four Europeans were voting for populist parties, mostly far-left and far-right,” Rooduijn said. “Now one in four are voting for far-right parties, mostly populist. It’s a big shift.” The surge in far-right support was particularly marked between 2023 and 2025, the research found, with far-right parties making often historic gains in national elections in big countries such as France and the UK in 2024, and then in Germany the following year. Austria’s far-right Freedom party (FPÖ) advanced from 16% to 29% in elections in 2024, while France’s National Rally (RN) surged from 19% to 37% to become the largest single party in parliament and Chega in Portugal rose from 7% to 18%. In Britain, Reform UK boosted its vote share from 2% in 2019 (as the Brexit party) to 14% in 2024, the research said. Reform has previously insisted it is not far-right. It did not respond to a request for comment by the Guardian. In Germany’s 2025 vote, the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) doubled its score from 10% to 21%, finishing as the country’s second-largest party for the first time. Far-right populist parties are now in government as part of ruling coalitions in Croatia, Czechia, Italy and Finland, propping up a right-wing minority government in Sweden, and, the analysis finds, leading in the polls in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and the UK. Such parties have also suffered recent defeats, including in the Netherlands, where Geert Wilders’ Freedom party (PVV) lost nearly a third of its seats to finish second last year , and Hungary, where Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz was comprehensively beaten by his centre-right rival in April. Despite these setbacks, however, the