Since the end of the 80s in Western Europe and since the 90s also in Central and Eastern Europe parties called right-wing populist appeared on the political scene of many European countries. They have been very successful at the local, international and European political level. Their success can be seen for example in the election results to the European Parliament in 2009. These parties now very often form part of contesters of the European integration process, at the same time becoming its’ challenge. There is still no unity among political scientists concerning the characteristics of these parties and how to define them. The aim of this publication is firstly to depict different theoretical concepts of the analyzed parties, which are present in the political science literature. They will be later the basis for defining the ideological-programmatic specifics of the right-wing populist parties and will indicate
their common features. The second aim is to present a new theoretical concept defining the right-wing populist parties. This definition will give grounds for further research on the phenomenon of the right-wing populist parties
