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The increasing popularity of populist parties in Europe, demonstrated in particular by their electoral success, is attracting increasing attention from the academic community. Although the phenomenon of populism is nothing new and has already been reviewed from a number of different perspectives, it still represents a diverse field for deeper analysis. The thesis deals with the case of the French National Front and its changes during its most successful election campaigns, that is in the presidential elections in 2002 and 2017. Specifically, the thesis also focuses on political communication and especially on the change it has gone through at its management level. By comparing the performance of both leaders and their agenda, the work allows a closer insight into the problem of transforming the ideological base as well as the ways of political communication. The outcome of this work is the analysis comparing the election campaign of Jean-Marie Le Pen and his daughter Marine, the current party leader. The work also contributes to the debate around dédiabolisation, or the de-demonization of the National Front launched under the leadership of Marine Le Pen.

The thesis is focused on the development and transformation of the National Front, largely after Marine Le Pen took up the position of the party's boss in 2011. An analysis of the direction of the party will be conducted to answer research questions, with the main emphasis on the development of the party from 2011. The analysis will be made with the reflection of the events of recent years, especially considering the influence of Marine Le Pen on the events around the party and her own actions. Based on these facts, in combination with the theoretical part of the thesis, the work has the ambition to answer research questions, including a question in the title of the thesis itself. The thesis is divided into several parts. In the first part, after the introduction into the problems of thesis, the aim of thesis is revealed, followed by methodology and overall overview of the structure of work. Another (theoretical) part defines key concepts. The following part deals with the general historical development of the party. The final part of the thesis focuses on the transformation of the National Front under the leadership of Marine Le Pen and, in the context of the theoretical part, attempts to answer research questions and outlines possible options for future development.

The topic of this thesis is political extremism in France, mainly focused on Front National. In the first part, there is defined term extremism, described its typology and its connection to the political system - political parties and its form at present. The content of the next part is to map historical developments of right-wing extremism in France, roots and its tradition. This thesis is mainly focused on development of Front National - since the formation to the present. The aim of this thesis is to map political extremism in France, mainly The Front National, comparison of the political party's development in the different stages. The focus is put on the comparison of its policy agenda and electors especially in connection to the change of leaders of the Front national during its existence (from Jean-Marie Le Pen to Marine Le Pen). Specialised literature in Czech and French and authentic documents were used for the preparation of this thesis. KEYWORDS extremism, right-wing extremism, political parties, Front National, Jean-Marie Le Pen, Marine Le Pen

Islamophobia and New Populism in Contemporary Western Europe: France and the Netherlands Bc. Martina Kočařová The Master thesis Islamophobia and New Populism in Contemporary Western Europe: France and the Netherlands explores current transformations of populism in contemporary Western Europe. The main objectives of the thesis are following: First, to verify a hypothesis implying that islamophobia has become a new feature of the contemporary populism, which has been consequently changing in terms of its content. Thus, it can hardly be classified as another form of the 'far right' politics. In this context, one may observe its shift towards the centre of the political party system. Second, based on the above outlined assumption, we aim to study whether the populist parties can be considered 'populist' in spite of the new features they have recently adopted. The theoretical framework of our research refers to Paul Taggart's conceptualisation of populism applying it on the cases of the French National Front under the lead of Marine Le Pen and the Dutch Party for Freedom and his leader Geert Wilders.