ABSTRACT
During the last two decades, a variety of forms of radical right organizations and a multitude of their actions have become an indissoluble element of Polish politics and society. While the radical right parties receive only marginal electoral support today, their parliamentary presence in the past decade and the current extra-parliamentary forces and their collective actions have had a long-term impact. This chapter starts by mapping the Polish radical right based on its pro- and anti-systemic attitudes. It then proceeds to turn its attention to the internal relations that have been established within and between these organizations. Today, a complex structure of the Polish radical right actors has emerged which in turn interacts with and affects its environment. Thus, the following part of the chapter shall focus on the external relations and impact of the radical right at different levels: party policy, message spreading in campaigns, legislation and initiatives, as well as at NGO level ‘on the ground.’ In the concluding section it shall be argued that the past activities of the radical right – not least in relation with its environment – as well as recent structural and ideological changes, have resulted in a new type of meta-relation of the Polish radical right which is termed ‘interconnectivity.’ The author further asserts that it is mostly the phenomenon of interconnectivity that has allowed irreversible changes to be made to Polish politics and society by the radical right.
