Radical Right Populists and Group Formation in the European Parliament

This chapter first discusses in depth the book’s core concept of “radical right populist”, before examining the history of co-operation (and mostly non-cooperation) between radical right populists in the European Parliament. It sets out the main theories, in particular policy congruence, which have been used to explain why parties form groups in the European Parliament. It then looks at how these theories might apply to radical right populist parties. Finally, the chapter presents the data and methods used in the study. These include Chapel Hill Expert Survey data, EP group finance and voting behaviour data, as well as interviews conducted with representatives and officials from a wide range of radical right populist parties and their allies.