ABSTRACT
Politics and politicians have had to endure a great deal of negative press in several European countries. Extremist anti-political parties and movements have thrived, among them the English Defence League and the British National Party, which has made advances at local level in the UK, and several Eurosceptic parties throughout Europe. 'Populism', a word previously often associated with Latin American autocracies, has thus gained prominence, indicating a concern also connected to extreme right activism, racism, and mounting anti-immigrant sentiments. Populism and xenophobia are not synonyms and the question needs to be asked as to why they seem to occur together so frequently. The main feature that one finds with equal centrality in all European populisms is Euroscepticism. It constitutes a reaction against an elite-driven process increasingly rejected by the sectors of the population resenting the increased migration flows generated by European integration.
