ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses a criterion to clearly differentiate between right-wing extremist and right-wing populist parties. The distinction should help to spot the dangers of those parties more easily by identifying their specific characteristics. The Freiheitliche Partei Ö sterreich (FPÖ) was founded in the 1950s and goes back to the German NSDAP and its Austrian predecessor organisations. With a rather liberal economic focus, the party gained 5-7" of the votes on average. Some of those terms have been introduced by journalists, some by scientists and some by right-wing parties themselves. The criteria will be applied in the second step by analysing the most important right-wing parties in Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria and France. The Dutch Partij voor de Vrijheid (PVV) and the Austrian FPÖ for example, have already been engaged in government coalitions. The leader of the French Front National competed against Jacques Chirac in the second ballot during the presidential election in 2002.
