Principal/Financier: European Commission – Jean Monnet – Erasmus + Programme

Period: 2017-2018

Partners: Institute of World Civilisations, London Metropolitan University (UK), Slavs Foundation (Bulgaria), Institute for East European Studies (Poland), University of Maribor (Slovenia), ISIG (Italy)

Description: The project PHENOMENON OF GROWING POPULARITY OF RADICAL POLITICAL MOVEMENTS IN EUROPE: CAUSES AND PROSPECTS – GRAPOM aims to investigate the causes and effects of the growing popularity that radical political movements have achieved in Europe in recent years. Although movements of the populist and extremist type have already been present on the continent for decades, it seems undeniable that they have gone through an important growth phase in recent years, partly due to the emergence of a number of issues: from the economic and financial crisis to migration and security problems, from decisions of European summits perceived as unpopular to the reinvigoration of national and nationalist demands. In many EU countries, parliamentary elections since 2009 and those for the European Parliament in 2014 have seen radical parties increase their electoral weight while traditional parties lost support from their constituencies. Thus, this seems to be the real challenge for all democratic and progressive organizations in Europe: to reverse the trend of radicalization of political orientations by investigating its causes and analyzing its effects.