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

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. …