Legal, economic, and social stances of ultranationalist parties in Western Europe

Abstract

Given the recent rise in support for ultranationalist parties in Western Europe, and the heterogeneity of terms used to refer to them, this article analyzes the ideological positions of this political family from a legal, economic and social perspective. To this end, the seventh version (2025) of the Chapel Hill Expert Survey database has been used, considering the seventeen ultranationalist political parties in Western Europe with representation in the European Parliament following the 2024 elections. The main conclusion drawn is that these parties, despite having some distinctive features depending on the country, maintain a common framework of defending the nation-state against supranational projects such as the European Union, reject immigration, and defend protectionist positions against global free trade. Rejection of immigration and opposition to the extension of rights to ethnic minorities are the two most radical positions of ultranationalism and those on which there is the greatest consensus. However, programmatic moderation on economic issues and diversity of positions on social issues where ultranationalism had historically taken an extremely conservative stance, such as the rejection of same-sex marriage, separate this new wave of ultranationalism from the radical right of the 1980s. These results shed light on the terminological confusion surrounding these political parties in both academic literature and the media.