The Green European Foundation’s first book, “Populism in Europe”, is now available. The book is a collection of articles from some of Europe’s leading thinkers on the issue, many of them with a background in Green politics.

The rise of the populist-right and why it matters 

The publication of this book coincides with the rise of populist right-wing parties in a number of European countries. The most recent is the True Finns in Finland, but there are similar examples in Hungary, Sweden, France and elsewhere. While the book acknowledges the sometimes crucial differences that can exist between these individual parties, it is also true that they share many attributes. These include focusing their grievances on minorities, railing against so-called “elites”, and  an always high level of euroscepticism.

How should the Green movement confront such a challenge? And does this challenge present an opportunity to put forth a positive, Green message on Europe, immigration and the socio-economic challenges that we face in the 21st Century? This book attempts to answer these questions, and its contributors offer varying and diverse opinions on the origins of this trend, and what an effective response should be.

As Erica Meijers states in her introduction, the reader will at times find contradicting opinions and analyses in this book. This underlines the complexity of this issue, and shows it to be fertile ground for debate and discussion.

Table of contents

  • Introduction (Erica Meijers)
  • The Temptation to Over-Simplify: Why Populism Poses a Danger to Europe (Daniel Cohn-Bendit & Edouard Gaudot)
  • The New National Individualism: Populism is Here to Stay (Dick Pels)
  • Adversaries or Competitors: The Rise of Green and Radical Right-wing Populist Parties (Sarah L. de Lange, Wouter van der Brug & Inger Baller)
  • European Dreams, Nationalist Ambitions: Internationalism in Populist Movements (Oyvind Strommen)
  • The Quality and Future of Democracy: Two Decades of Free Elections in Central Europe (Sona Szomolanyi)
  • Lifting the Veil: Populists and Women’s Rights (Olga Pietruchova)
  • Populist Realism: Vox Populi and the Postpolitical (Merijn Oudenampsen)
  • The Spiral of Noise and Attention Seeking: Right-wing Populism and the Media (Robert Misk)
  • Imagination in Power: The Social-political Conditions of Italian Media Populism (Marco Jacquemet)
  • The Politics of Fear and Belonging: The Socio-Economic Breeding Ground of Populism (Barbara Hoheneder)
  • Freedom and Security in the Twenty-first Century: Green Alternatives (Dirk Holemans)

You can download the introduction to the book for free, which will give you an insight into the book’s chapters and what the authors discuss and propose.

Please email info@gef.eu if you are interested in purchasing a copy.

German translation now available

A German translation is now available to purchase online, with a foreword by Heinrich Böll Stiftung Co-President Ralf Fücks, GEF Co-President Heidi Hautala and Andrea Novy of Grüne Bildungswerkstatt. The foreword is available to download below. This translation is a cooperation project of GEF, the Heinrich Böll Stiftung, Grüne Bildungswerkstatt and Bureau de Helling. More information is available on the Heinrich Böll Stiftung website.

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Foreword DE 36.98 KB 80 downloads

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Book Review - Andreas Novy 94.10 KB 53 downloads

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Format :
PDF
Number of pages :
11
Publication date :
2011, September 01
Type :
Studies and Research

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