The rise of anti-immigration parties in Europe shows that the far-right doesn't have to be in power to push its agenda and influence policy making. The Local's Conor Faulkner takes a look around the far-right parties shaping debate across the continent and looks at which party is the most extremist.

In post-war Europe political consensus kept radical forces away from state power. In Germany it became known as brandmauer — the firewall. For the French, a cordon sanitaire kept the Front National, now Marine Le Pen's Rassemblement National (RN), away from power.

In 2025, however, the far-right rules in Hungary and Italy. In recent years it has featured - whether formally or informally - in coalitions in Sweden, Austria, Norway, Finland and Holland, and could soon govern in France, the UK, Germany, and Spain, if the latest opinion polls are anything to go by.

That there has been a wave of anti-immigration parties in Europe is undeniable — but who are these parties and what do they want?

In times of polarisation, it’s easy to view far-right parties as a monolith. Marta Lorimer, Lecturer in Politics at Cardiff University, tells The Local that there is “variation between these parties,” though she adds that “it is variations of extreme we are talking about, not a scale from moderate to extreme.”

In France thro