French Literature Reviews - 2026

Vocabulary of the Far Right
History, Politics and Society

The prerequisite for the social acceptance of far-right parties is the normalization of the ideas and proposals they disseminate. Only once this work is accomplished can marginal parties aspire to become central players. However, this process first involves a battle on the linguistic front: vocabulary is the gateway for the far right, and often the first warning sign. Since the beginning of summer, the Grand Continent website has provided open access to the various lemmas of the Vocabulary of the Far Right, the result of collective work by a group of researchers — sociologists, historians, political scientists, sociolinguists — from across Europe. To discover the project, you can read the interview with Steven Forti, historian and specialist in radical right movements globally: "The far right's first step is to normalize extreme words", and browse this enlightening glossary…

This glossary emerges from contemporary debates surrounding the linguistic strategies employed by radical political factions across Europe. Researchers from disciplines such as sociology, history, and political science have combined their expertise to examine how specific terms enter public discourse and shift political boundaries over time. Readers interested in contemporary political discourse and the sociology of language may find this digital glossary relevant for understanding how political vocabulary evolves.