With the EU’s eastern enlargement in 2004–2007, the process of political transformation in Eastern Europe seems to have reached a conclusion.1 The role of the radical right in the consolidation of democracy was marginal to nonexistent; in the words of Cas Mudde (in 2005), “Racist extremist parties are not really a major political force in Central and Eastern Europe. Indeed, if compared to their ‘brethren’ in Western Europe, they look somewhat pathetic: (far) more extremist, but (far) less successful.”2

Today, the picture looks different: far from the sidelines, the radical right’s influence has extended to major parties in the region, and various governments have adopted parts of the radical right’s agenda, as the current governments in Hungary and Poland illustrate. While in general the same can be said about Western Europe, this article argues that the radical right in Eastern Europe adds a particularly pervasive challenge to the democratic order in a number of countries and to the region’s politics. This is evident—and shall be elucidated step by step after a conceptual clarification and mapping of the phenomenon—by the radical right’s ideological extremism, electoral volatility in the context of under-institutionalized party systems, and captivation of the mainstream discourse in Eastern societies, which are most sympathetic to the radical right’s message.

2 Cas Mudde, “Central and Eastern Europe,” in Racist Extremism in Central and Eastern Europe, ed. Cas Mudde (London: Routledge, 2005), 269.