A map of every far right or far left government in Europe

The Netherlands has elected its first ever far-right leader, and its an indication of the shifting in political outlooks across the continent.

The populist leader Geert Wilders has been dubbed the “Dutch Donald Trump” and now leads the country with historically one of the most socially liberal outlooks on the planet.

Things are looking very different across the whole of Europe than they once did, and the map below shows the number of countries with far-right governments – as well as the left-leaning socialist governments of Portugal and Albania.

While the majority of countries can be classed as either centrist, centre-left or centre-right there are a number of high profile exceptions on the right.

indy100/Mapchart.net

You might expect to see the Netherlands on there. But despite the shock result this week, we've not included the country on the map as a far-right government as Wilders is still seeking to form a new ruling coalition to become the country's first far-right prime minister. The country has one of the most complicated systems for forming new coalitions in Europe, with the last government taking a record 271 days to form.

Elsewhere, Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni of the hard-right party Brothers of Italy was one of the first to signal a growing far-right political trend across the continent last year.

She became Italy’s first female prime minister after her right-wing coalition secured 44 per cent of the vote in the country’s general election, allied with Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia and Matteo Salvini’s far-right group.

Poland’s ruling party Law and Justice (PiS) has shifted further to the far right over the last 20 years, turning state media into party propaganda. It also opposes LGBT+ rights in lieu of so-called “traditional” family values.

Hungary under Viktor Orban is one of the more unambiguously far-right states in Europe, with a US report on the state of democracy in Eastern Europe published in 2022 showing that democracy has deteriorated in the country over recent years.

Last year, three Swedish right-wing parties formed a government, with the previous fringe group Sweden Democrats becoming the biggest in the coalition.

Recently, Switzerland’s right-wing populist SVP re-secured its position as Switzerland's leading political party in the federal election last month.

Finland’s voting public, meanwhile, ousted progressive leader Sanna Marin in favour of the right-wing National Coalition Party leader Petteri Orpo in a tight election earlier this year.

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