ABSTRACT

How can a unique definition embrace all the heterogeneity of the movements and parties labelled as ‘populist’? Here are some examples of this heterogeneity:

• parties in government (for example, the Hungarian Fidesz, currently in government since winning the April 2014 elections; the Danish People’s Party, which supported the conservative coalition government between 2001 and 2011; the Northern League, in government from 2001 to 2006 and then again from 2008 to 2011; ANEL in Greece; the Austrian Freedom Party);

• far-right opposition parties like the National Front or Vlaamsblok not in government – they are excluded from power, because, both in France and Belgium, mainstream parties agree to reject any political collaboration with an extreme right that is accused as close to fascism;

• parties of the left in opposition, such as the Front de gauche of Jean-Luc Mélenchon in France or Podemos in Spain;

• radical left parties in government, such as Syriza in Greece; • parties nostalgic for authoritarian regimes (such as the Bulgarian Ataka); • autonomists – federalists or independents (such as the Northern League or

the Vlaamsblok); • neo-fascists hypernationalists (like Forza Nuova in Italy, Golden Dawn in

Greece and Jobbik in Hungary); • homophobes and so-called defenders of the traditional family (such as the

Hungarian Jobbik, Forza Nuova in Italy, Golden Dawn and Laos in Greece); • islamophobes and defenders of gay marriage (such as the party of Geert

Wilders in the Netherlands); • the Italian Five Star Movement, difficult to categorise because of the novelty

of its political message: direct democracy through the network; environmental sensibility and de-growth; fight against corruption.