Right‐Wing Populism in Rural Europe. Introduction to the Special Issue

This special issue aims to understand the rise of right‐wing populism in the European countryside, as well as the forms of resistance and the alternatives being built against it. In this short introduction, we briefly present the main objectives and conceptual position of the special issue and introduce its articles. Each article is discussed here based on its contribution to one of the following themes: (1) analysis of the existing socio‐economic system and power relations that gave rise to right‐wing populism in rural Europe; (2) critical examination of the major assumptions about rural support for populist movements; (3) problematic overlap between politics and rhetoric of right‐wing populist parties and left‐wing (green) parties and agrarian movements; (4) agrarian populism and food sovereignty movement as progressive alternatives to right‐wing politics in the European countryside.