Europe

The paper deals with the interaction of two processes in the European politics: the expansion of the radical right and the outburst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The influential interpretation that the first stage of the coronacrisishas registered the radical right’s failure to use the pandemic politically, is being examined. The text tries to demonstrate that the radical right’s inconsistency and ineffectiveness are genuine, but they do not thwart the classical agenda of ultranationalism, antiliberalism, populism and traditionalism and their reaffirmation in these new conditions. Moreover, the governmental responses to the pandemic in Europe encourage the radical right’s penetration in a new paradoxical field, the defence of democracy. It is concluded that the first months of 2020 have not eroded the ideological potential of this part of the political spectrum and consequently have not destroyed its chances for political rise without predetermining them.