ABSTRACT
The term populism tends to overshadow the debate concerning democracy and the far right. Populism sometimes seems to be the escape route to prevent any substantial discourse about contemporary anti-democratic trends. The political meaning of left and right is the product of the sitting order of the French parliament during the revolutionary period. Among the political traditions and parties to be considered right in Europe at the beginning of the twenty-first century, significant distinctions have to be made. Populism is a vague concept. Populist tendencies, populist thinking, populist traditions have been, and still are, part of the history of democracy. Populism per se is not directed against democracy. The term has become a synonym for far-right tendencies that claim they are not anti-democratic, but represent the true understanding of democracy. Every political movement is the result of cleavages, of conflict lines, running through any society.
