Reflections on the spaces of populist politics in Europe

Abstract

A discussion of the record of left- and right-wing populist parties in Europe in response to the austerity policies that followed on from the financial crisis of 2007-8, focusing both on the populist right and on the trajectories of Syriza and Podemos. Questions discussed include: the issue of definition - whether populism is more than a mobilising strategy/understanding it as a hybrid political practice; what happens to left populist parties when they come into government; what the difference is between left social democracy and populism; the different geographies of populism - how it operates at the local, national and transnational levels; right-wing populism in Spain, including the Partido Popular as well as Vox, particularly in Madrid; authoritarian populism; populism and nationalism, especially in relation to hostility to migration; right-wing populism in Greece.