TY - JOUR

T1 - Challengers or the Establishment? How Populists Talk About Populists

AU - Schwörer, Jakob

AU - Fernández-García, Belén

AU - Caiani, Manuela

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 Association for the Study of German Politics.

PY - 2023/5/5

Y1 - 2023/5/5

N2 - Several western European countries recently experienced the establishment of more than one populist actor in their party system. While we know how populists attack the political mainstream, we lack knowledge on how populists talk about other populist actors. Conducting content analysis of campaigning communication on Twitter and 23 interviews with populist MPs in Germany, Italy and Spain–countries characterised by the presence of various populisms–we find that populists demonise each other perceiving themselves as adversaries. Populists attribute a malicious and extremist character to the (populist) opponent when the latter is ideologically distant indicating the decisive role of host ideologies. Positive evaluations only occur by overlapping policy position. Some specificities emerge in Italy, where established populists behave more like the mainstream. Being populist as such does not unify political actors in the fight against the establishment: populists appear at least as hostile towards other anti-establishment parties as towards the mainstream.

AB - Several western European countries recently experienced the establishment of more than one populist actor in their party system. While we know how populists attack the political mainstream, we lack knowledge on how populists talk about other populist actors. Conducting content analysis of campaigning communication on Twitter and 23 interviews with populist MPs in Germany, Italy and Spain–countries characterised by the presence of various populisms–we find that populists demonise each other perceiving themselves as adversaries. Populists attribute a malicious and extremist character to the (populist) opponent when the latter is ideologically distant indicating the decisive role of host ideologies. Positive evaluations only occur by overlapping policy position. Some specificities emerge in Italy, where established populists behave more like the mainstream. Being populist as such does not unify political actors in the fight against the establishment: populists appear at least as hostile towards other anti-establishment parties as towards the mainstream.

KW - Politics

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85158930654&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/a85763d7-3259-3d55-8d68-20e8993f354d/

U2 - 10.1080/09644008.2023.2207014

DO - 10.1080/09644008.2023.2207014

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85158930654

JO - German Politics

JF - German Politics

SN - 0964-4008

ER -