Challengers or the Establishment? How Populists Talk About Populists
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
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in: German Politics, Jahrgang 34, Nr. 1, 2025, S. 52-76.
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
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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 - 2025
Y1 - 2025
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
VL - 34
SP - 52
EP - 76
JO - German Politics
JF - German Politics
SN - 0964-4008
IS - 1
ER -