How should we analyse the patriotism of the populist Left: A response to Josep Lobera and Juan Roch

Abstract

In a recent article in this journal, Josep Lobera and Juan Roch formulate a thoughtful critique of scholarly works on the nationalist dimension of left‐wing populist discourses, and, in their analysis on Podemos, they engage especially with my works on the subject. They argue that not only do Podemos supporters express lower levels of national identification than the rest of the Spanish population, but also that, coherently with its electorate, Podemos avoids talking about issues related to Spanish identity and exhibits a non‐nationalist or even anti nationalist narrative. Contrarily, in my studies I found that Podemos has made extensive use of nationalist rhetoric. In this article I briefly respond to their critique, further clarifying the findings of my works and explaining why they do not match with the findings of Lobera and Roch. More broadly, I see this response as a chance to contribute to the further development of the recent and vibrant scholarly debate on the Left and its relation to nationalism.

Nationalism, patriotism, or national reference? A response to Jacopo Custodi

“…All political parties reclaim the nation or refer to a national identity in one way or another, especially if they aspire to government positions. We agree with Custodi (in press) that “the existence of very different ways of constructing national identification and pride” (p. 3) is worthy to be studied and we consider his work as a relevant contribution in this direction. However, in our view, it is misleading to identify these parties or their discourse as nationalist only because they refer to the nation or construct the national identity.…”

“…In our view, the first approach to nationalism, defended by Custodi, leads to the conflation of very different forms to construct the nation and the blurring of the meaning of nationalism and patriotism. Custodi (2021, in press) uses interchangeably these terms in his articles and in the reply and assumes that nationalism encompasses patriotism or vice versa. We find this conflation problematic because in doing so there is only one way left to distinguish between a far‐right party and a far‐left party or a centre left party: To create subtypes within the nationalist discourse (something such as inclusionary and exclusionary nationalism).…”

“…It leads to cuts on the welfare state to non‐national persons, to control and securitization of migration influxes, and to cultural confrontation against minorities. Custodi acknowledges that the alleged nationalism of Podemos “has little to do with nationalism as a category of practice in contemporary Western European politics” (Custodi, in press, p. 2). In our view, it is critical to develop a categorization of nationalist political discourse and political parties, which is consistent with the dimension of political action and policy orientation and improves our understanding of contemporary politics.…”