The Evolution of the ‘populist Potential’ in European Politics: From New Right Radicalism to Anti-system Populism

Abstract

Over the past 30 years, responding to different international, political and economic circumstances, populists have formed, preserved, nurtured and expanded a political identity that is today present in most political systems in Europe. This identity constitutes a 'populist potential', in the sense that it is nonideological and that it wavers between electoral abstention and support for antisystem parties. This essay provides a historical overview of the ideological and sociological evolution of the populist identity in Europe and reviews the ways parties of the centre-right have dealt with it in the past. Its conclusion is that practices like coalition building and theme co-optation are not so easy to deploy today, given the non-ideological and anti-system nature of the populist potential.

Hybrid salience: Examining the role of traditional and digital media in the rise of the Greek radical left

“…Tsipras’ pre-election political agenda included extensive catalogues of populist promises, such as the immediate cancellation of Greece’s financial agreement with the European Union and the IMF, the eradication of the country’s enormous public debt, ‘dignified’ salary raises and so on. Media and academic analysts attributed Tsipras’ rapid rise to power to his populist, anti-austerity rhetoric, which the average voter found extremely appealing (Chrysogelos, 2013; Smith, 2012; Stavrakakis and Katsambekis, 2014).…”

‘Let us blow them down!’: Corruption as the subject of (non-)populist communication of the Czech Pirate Party

“…5 He uses this softened title to express the fact that they are different from both the populist radical right-wing and from the well-established or mainstream political parties. Similar view has been introduced by Chryssogelos (2013), who titles the pirates as ‘anti-system parties benefiting from the populist potential’. In contrast to these authors, there is an approach that refuses to associate pirates and populism.…”

La configuración de las agendas mediáticas en elecciones de segundo orden. Cobertura informativa y concurrencia electoral en las elecciones al Parlamento Europeo de mayo de 2019

“…Varias causas justifican este desencanto por los comicios europeos: como la constatación de que los votantes consideran que las atribuciones del órgano de representación, en este caso el Parlamento Euro-INVESTIGACIONES Y DOCUMENTOS peo, son de menor relevancia que la cámara nacional (Van der Brug y Van der Eijk, 2007); o, estimar que éstas están más alejada de sus necesidades como ciudadanos (Morata, 2000). Además de la reducida participación electoral, la investigación ha evidenciado efectos políticos e institucionales muy considerables, como una mayor tendencia a obtener mejores resultados electorales y/o representación parlamentaria por parte de partidos minoritarios y euroescépticos (Chryssogelos, 2013;Antón-Mellón y Hernández-Carr, 2016), aprovechando sistemas electorales más proporcionales 3 . Además, se ha constatado que los electores utilizan estas elecciones para castigar a los partidos gobernantes, especialmente cuando se producen en mitad del ciclo electoral nacional, ya que perciben estas elecciones como un referéndum a la actuación del gobierno.…”