The book examines the defensive reaction of populist parties to the perceived threats of open borders (multi-culturalism and cheap labour) and elite negotiations (at all levels of governance). Protest attitudes translate into alternative views of European integration favouring proposals for an anti-assimilationist and labour protective "Fortress", as well as a religiously-based "Europe of the People". The book considers the possibility of a potential cleavage in the incipient European party system through alliances of "losers of integration" cutting across the left-right alignment and overlapping with ethno-linguistic, centre-periphery, religious, and rural-urban factors that survived in the Alpine region more than elsewhere.
An empirical analysis by a group of international experts focuses on the Alpine areas of Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, and Switzerland in which parties like FPOE, CSU, Lega Nord, and Schweizerische Volkspartei have recently become crucial actors.
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