State of Populism in Europe 2020
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2020 STATE OF POPULISM IN EUROPE – 2020 STATE Tamás BOROS STATE OF Maria FREITAS POPULISM Gábor GYŐRI IN EUROPE Gergely LAKI 2020 STATE OF POPULISM IN EUROPE 2020 Published by: Table of Contents FEPS – Foundation for European Progressive Studies Rue Montoyer 40, 4th floor – 1000 Brussels, Belgium T: +32 2 234 69 00 Foreword .........................................................................................................................................6 Email: [email protected] Austria ............................................................................................................................................10 Website: www.feps-europe.eu Belgium ..........................................................................................................................................14 Bulgaria ..........................................................................................................................................18 Croatia ............................................................................................................................................22 Policy Solutions Cyprus .............................................................................................................................................26 Révay utca 10 – 1065 Budapest, Hungary Czechia ...........................................................................................................................................30 T: +36 1 4 748 748 Email: [email protected] Denmark .......................................................................................................................................36 Website: www.policysolutions.eu Estonia ...........................................................................................................................................40 Finland ............................................................................................................................................44 France .............................................................................................................................................48 Copyright: FEPS and Policy Solutions, March 2020 ISBN: 978-2-930769-39-4 9782930769394 Germany .......................................................................................................................................52 Greece .............................................................................................................................................58 Hungary .........................................................................................................................................64 Responsible editors: Ireland .............................................................................................................................................70 Tamas BOROS, Co-Director of Policy Solutions Maria FREITAS, FEPS Senior Policy Advisor Italy ...................................................................................................................................................74 Ania SKRZYPEK, FEPS Director of Research and Training Latvia ...............................................................................................................................................80 Lithuania ........................................................................................................................................84 Luxembourg ................................................................................................................................88 Authors: Tamás BOROS, Gergely LAKI, Gábor GYŐRI Malta ...............................................................................................................................................92 The Netherlands.......................................................................................................................96 Page layout and printing: Ferling Ltd. – Hungary Poland ..........................................................................................................................................102 Portugal ......................................................................................................................................106 Romania .....................................................................................................................................110 This study does not represent the collective views of FEPS and Policy Solutions. The responsibility of FEPS and Policy Solutions is limited to approving its publication as worthy of consideration of the European progressive Slovakia .......................................................................................................................................114 movement. Slovenia ......................................................................................................................................118 Spain .............................................................................................................................................122 Sweden .......................................................................................................................................126 Conclusion: The State of Populism in the European Union .........................130 Index: List of Populist Parties in the European Union .....................................136 With the financial support of the European Parliament. This report does not represent the European Parliament’s views but only of the respective authors. Foreword grand economic visions has come to an end, and changes on the horizon. Over the past five years, globalisation, market economy and multinational we have highlighted numerous such developments. corporations are apparently gobbling up everything. Allow us to emphasise five important trends and Foreword As a result, the political fault lines are increasingly insights from these five years: less likely to be organised around economic policies, and they are more likely to centre on social Back in 2015, we saw both left-wing populist parties or cultural concerns. In other words, people and – that is parties which are opposed to multinational public discourse do not tend to be mainly divided corporations and are critical of globalisation and along the lines of their respective ideas about the capitalism – as well as right-wing populists – that future of the economy but based on what they think is xenophobic, anti-EU and nationalist parties – Populism in Europe 2020 about social values, lifestyles, migration, the nation increase their respective levels of public support. and supranational entities, such as multinational But while the latter were surging only in Western corporations or the European Union. and Central and Eastern Europe, the former were almost exclusively limited to Southern Europe. – Ending half a decade These changes do not imply, of course, that the These days, this once conspicuous regional fault dilemmas that previously defined politics are gone line has vanished, and in all but a few countries for good, that old political parties have been rendered left-wing populism has declined massively, and completely obsolete. In fact, some countries have so they are anywhere near a position of winning not changed at all in this respect over the past elections. Right-wing populists, by contrast, have decade. All we claim here is that, to varying degrees increased their support even in countries where in each country, the trends mentioned above have such formations did not even exist a year or two manifested themselves and now decisively shape ago, and they have ascended to government either If we had to name a single concept from the last The alternation in government of centre-left and politics – jointly with the earlier trends. on their own or as part of coalition governments in decade that has spilled over from political science centre-right political forces that had dominated numerous countries of the EU. We can conclude, jargon into public discourse, spreading through the post-World War II era disappeared and When the Foundation for European Progressive therefore, that all sorts of previous constraints that the latter like wildfire, then populism would most has been replaced by a tripartite or even more Studies (FEPS) launched the Populism Tracker once served to put a ceiling on the popularity of likely be the word to spring to everyone’s mind. In fragmented political scene, with all the concomitant project jointly with the Budapest-based Policy right-wing populists have recently crumbled. This political science, populism has been a major topic unpredictability and tensions. The traditional Solutions in 2015, they set out to gauge the impact shift has turned them into potentially major players for decades now, and over time it has occasionally parties of the centre-right and the centre-left have of these changing trends, to present their insights almost everywhere in the European Union, while also cropped up in public discourse – often experienced unprecedented declines in their levels about this phenomenon to the wider public, and to left-wing populists are no longer serious contenders erroneously used to refer to demagogy. But during of support, while alternative political formations – propose progressive answers instead of populist for governmental power almost anywhere, save for the past decade, it has emerged as the top issue not only populists but also greens and liberals – are politics. We were among the first to