More than 23% of Europeans voted for a far-right party in their country's most recent national elections, according to a 2024 analysis by more than 150 political scientists. The research for the PopuList survey was led by Matthijs Rooduijn, a political scientist at the University of Amsterdam.

A decade ago, the proportion of Europeans voting for far-right parties was about 10%, and it was roughly 5% in 1995. Almost 30% of Europeans currently vote for anti-establishment parties.

Far-right parties made gains in national elections, including in France and the UK in 2024, and in Germany in 2025. Austria's Freedom party (FPÖ) advanced from 16% to 29% in elections in 2024. France's National Rally (RN) increased its vote share from 19% to 37% to become the largest single party in parliament in 2024.

Chega in Portugal rose from 7% to 18% in recent elections. Reform UK boosted its vote share from 2% in 2019 to 14% in 2024. Reform UK operated as the Brexit party in 2019 and has stated it is not a far-right party. In Germany's 2025 vote, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) increased its vote share from 10% to 21%, finishing as Germany's second-largest party for the first time.

The PopuList defines far-right parties as those that espouse nativism and authoritarianism. Nativism is defined as the belief that a country should be inhabited solely by members of its native group. Authoritarians believe societies should be well ordered and all transgressions against authority should be punished severely. Germany's domestic intelligence agency has designated the AfD as a suspected right-wing extremist group, a designation upheld by courts. France's top court rejected a 2024 objection by the RN to its interior ministry label of far right.

"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."

Far-right populist parties are part of ruling coalitions in Croatia, Czechia, Italy, and Finland, and are propping up a right-wing minority government in Sweden. Currently, far-right parties are leading in the polls in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, and the UK, according to the analysis. The PopuList identifies 133 far-right parties in Europe, compared to 112 in 2003, and 201 populist parties in total, up from 165 in 2003.

Geert Wilders' Freedom party (PVV) lost nearly a third of its seats in the Netherlands last year. Viktor Orbán's Fidesz party was defeated by a centre-right rival in Hungary in April.