Introduction

The year 2009 ended with the extremist leader Nick Griffin – following the British National Party (BNP)’s ‘achievements’ at the European Union elections – being invited onto Question Time: a ‘blackshirt’ in one of the temples of the British media, complained the many protesters. It was predictable that the BBC’s invitation to an alleged heir of Nazi-fascism would cause a sensation. Fascism and Nazism have always aroused great interest among scholars, mass media and public opinion. Likewise, over the past two decades across Western Europe, the rise of right-wing extremist parties and movements has generated an abundance of comments, debates, analyses and disputes making right-wing extremism one of the most controversial phenomena of the contemporary period.