156 DOI: 10.4324/9781003256892-15 11 THE GREEK-CYPRIOT FAR-RIGHT SPACE, ITS HISTORY, AND ELAM’S TRAJECTORY Giorgos Charalambous Introduction Situated next to a burgeoning and growing literature on the Greek-Cypriot far right, this chapter’s main contribution is to map out the historical sequence of far right and extremist mobilisation in Cyprus, aiming at a systemic description of the political, ideational, communicational and organi- sational aspects of the National Popular Front (Ethniko Laiko Metopo; henceforth ELAM). Utilis- ing a variety of primary and secondary sources – electoral data, party material, research into the political context, relevant texts –, it seeks to situate the Greek-Cypriot case within the conceptual terrain of a number of relevant, comparative discussions in the scholarly literature. To locate ELAM with respect to the academic debate on the far right, the chapter proceeds in four separate sections, concerning political, ideational, communicational and organisational elements, respectively. Because of ethnic confict and its respective (Turkish and Greek) nationalisms, the politi- cal environment in the Republic of Cyprus has been fertile for ethnoreligious and conformist sensibilities. So much so that every analysis of the contemporary far right must compare it to “before” and to “others” if it is to pinpoint temporal continuity or change at one level and spatial analogy at another. Political elements are shaped through electoral trajectories, the key questions for the literature being what explains success or failure and their variability amongst far-right parties (Brils et al., 2022; Golder et al., 2003). On one level, aggregate political opportunities on average open or close for this particular party family, yet they are also variable between countries at given periods in time (Arzheimer & Carter, 2006). From the analytical angle of collective action that goes beyond party politics, it has to be acknowl- edged in addition, that identities, ideologies and mobilisation are not exhausted by parties but manifest also through individuals (e.g. intellectuals), groups (such as social movements) and other collective actors or institutions. This makes it important to speak of the far-right space, within the party system as well as outside of it, defned by xenophobia, nationalist sentiment, authoritarian law and order, and welfare chauvinism, which is ultimately anti-egalitarianism (Rydgren, 2018). The frst section considers the Cypriot context of political opportunities for the far right historically and interprets ELAM’s rise in conjunction with the party’s strategy. Regarding ideational profling, an established academic distinction is between a radical and an extreme far right. The former has come to be understood, above all, as “illiberal demo- cratic,” populist and ultra-conservative, a modernised entity which seeks to be incorporated