Nietzsche's Dionysian Philosophy and the European New Right

This article focuses on Nietzsche's reception by the leading figures of the European New Right-Alain de Benoist, Guillaume Faye, and Pierre Krebs. By exploring their direct borrowings of Nietzschean terms and ideas in their works, such as his ontology, theory of history, and normative self-assertion, I illustrate the New Right's interpretation and appropriation of Nietzsche's Dionysian philosophy and political project as a whole. More specifically, I demonstrate that the Nietzschean appropriations that are crucial to the political agenda of the European New Right are the revival of paganism and the rights of peoples, and other themes its leaders see as constituting Nietzsche's "aristocratic radicalism."