Current Affairs

There is a worrying trend worldwide and that is the movement away from mainstream politics towards populist politics. What makes populism so dominant as a narrative can be underpinned by a disconnect between the politician and the electorate. The disenfranchised electorate argue that they have not been heard and that they are being ignored by their electoral representative, who may view their arguments and concerns as irrelevant. Rising inflation, the green movement and the question of identity are all questions that are at the forefront of the concerns of the electorate worldwide and though politicians are meant to have inside knowledge of their communities – there are strong movements politically that have replaced the voices of the liberal elite with that of populism.

In the Americas, the same arguments can be found right across both continents and the voice of Trump could be heard with Bolsinaro. Populist politicians jump on the contentious arguments that the electorate view with suspicion, and in the United States this could be the subject of abortion, women’s rights or even the type of literature found in school libraries. Each a contentious subject, which the the populists highlight, argue against and publicise in order to improve their standing politically. The idea of dialogue is locked away in sound bites, instagram ravings or twitter posts. Dialogue is not open to scrutiny and instead of a rich conversation where the pro’s and con’s are explored, there is a statement, which is neither qualified, considered or questioned, but places a contentious fact as an argument to underpin the populist politicians ambitions.

Europe is entering election season and the EU is worried about the movement towards right leaning populist politicians who argue for change. Italy has already elected a populist politician in the guise of Meloni. Her right wing party has dominance over the Italian senate, and though she has not acted on the promises of the election, her brand of populism is dominating the conversation across Europe. The AFD in Germany, the Ruling Law Party in Poland, the Swedish Demokrats and other right wing affiliated parties are dominating the conversation across Europe. The main concern that is concerning these parties is immigration. Members of the AFD in Germany held a meeting in which they discussed the repatriation of migrants to their own lands, this was reported on and mass demonstrations took place in Germany in support of migrants. But for millions of Germans, migrants are a contentious issue and they will support the AFD, either openly or secretly in the ballot box.

Dr Rachel Kleinfeld argues that American democracy has been softened up over decades, voices such as Newt Gingrich or Ronald Reagan had been arguing against migration in the 1980s and 1990s. The arguments of migration was championed by Trump in his presidency and the right wing media have pushed this argument, which has been taken up as a populist argument that has caught the imagination of an electorate that is facing change to their economic lives as the economy develops and changes. Dr Rachel Kleinfeld argues that it is the failure of the Democrats to reach the electorate, they have missed the opportunity to publicise their arguments through peripheral media, such as Tik Tok and they are unable to put across new plans to placate and explain to a working class electorate how and why America is changing economically.

In an earlier article I wrote about Sweden, I argued that “Sweden, a country known for openness, transparency and gender equality has changed. […] There is an image of Sweden as a socialist utopia, but […] it is rebelling against immigrants, taxes and change has come from privatisation of state owned industries. Inflation in the suburbs is being felt, but it is the gang warfare among the immigrant community that […] has left a lot of Swedes moving away from the comfortable socialism that once dominated the way Swedes lived, sympathised and voted.” There are other reasons that Swedes rejected socialism, but one of the arguments is that five percent more men voted for the Demokrats than women. The loss of traditional industries and the dominance of women in the workforce, education and academia has all affected the role men have in society.

Richard Young, a senior fellow with Carnegie argues that in Europe it is not so much as an argument against the European Union, but a reaction to the loss of sovereignty, the populists want “more prominence to the nation state.” But issues also being pushed right across Europe all affect the arguments concerning alienation of the electorate. The climate argument is one of these, populists argue that the climate agenda is unfair and have taken on the mantle of climate deniers. They argue that the costs involved are extortionate and there needs to be social fairness in the debate, which they claim has been taken over by Green extremism.

Dr Rachel Kleinfeld argues that the difference between populism in Europe and the US is caused by class. She argues that in the United States there is a polarisation, which is a societal division, which has become a strategy used by elites to control the narrative in the media. She argues that there are 330 million Americans and that they don’t understand why they have to give up their shopping bags to help the planet. They don’t want gun control and the question of abortion has split the country into two and there is gridlock on these contentious issues. She argues that “social polarisation” is a significant element in politics and arguments such as gender have come to prominence, where for the past twenty years women have been promoted and the traditional employment of men has gone to China. She argues that in countries such as Brazil, ten times more men voted for Bolsanaro than women.

The election in Poland caused a surprise, as the populist government was defeated by a Eurocentric party led by Donald Tusk, who became Poland’s new prime minister. How was it done, Tusk and his party went to the electorate and reached out to them. In Israel, though there is a war and a populist prime minister in Netanyahu, the parties are uniting to reach out to an amalgam of voters who come from all political backgrounds to defeat Netanyahu in any way that they can. But it is in countries such as Tunisia, where you can receive ten years in prison for criticism of the President and his party, that there is a realisation that the populism that President Kaies Saied stood for is hollow. He has taken the mantle of populism and the issues that led to his presidency, are being undone by the same arguments of corruption, nepotism, unemployment and debt. Tunisia is in a political crisis, the economy is in free-fall and Saied has failed to tackle the corruption that he promised to tackle.

Populism has been called the South American disease, but democracy has been quite successful recently and there has been a march back of the populists such as Balsinaro. But Argentina have just elected Javier Milie, who is almost a fall back to the Generals who decimated the Argentine economy. But it was the failure of the democratic institutions to manage the economy, which has led to the rise of a populist leading Argentina. But he is a populist without real power, he did not bring a party with him into parliament and as such he has been forced into trying to take executive decisions and make compromises with political parties to bring about the change that he promised the electorate. Oliver Della Costa Stuenkel of Carnegie argues that the populism of Javier Millie has brought to prominence subjects that were taboo with the parliamentarians, because they could do very little about it, such as drugs and debt, but this has come to the fore with Milei who has set out plans to tackle both. Like all populists Milie has fed into the concerns of the male electorate and he argues against the promotion of women, which he thinks have been mischievous and anti-men.

 In America and parts of Europe the media are being used for sound bites by the populist politicians. There are arguments that the media is unrepresentative of the masses and media are concerned with the liberal argument rather than the populist. But elements of the media are being brought into the arguments emanating from the populists and broadcasters such as Fox, have brought into the populism of the right, which is rich in advertising revenue. Other media outlets that play sound-bites are twitter, TikTok and populists garner a lot of support through face-book. But there have been questions about the media’s role in promoting populists and when Trump argued that “the election was stolen,” and blamed the ballot machines, which was repeated on Fox, they were sued by the companies that make the ballot machines, who proved in court that this was a lie. Furthermore, media companies (Twitter and facebook) were blamed for the riots that took place after the election at the Congress building, which led to a number of deaths. The continuation of the populists to use the media to manage their campaigns demands large funding, but the support the populists garner from their electorate is also indicative of their ability to gain the funds necessary to win elections.

Populism is growing across Europe and America. Arguments concerning the environment, children’s literature, abortion, immigration, guns and sexual discrimination are all subjects that the American populists are feeding on. The liberalism of the state is slow to act, explain or even provide a sound-bite for the media. The manipulation of arguments and the alienation of parts of the population from political discourse is also part of the narrative that is part of the populist politicians lexicon of argument that is central to their discourse.  Europe like America is suffering from arguments that have alienated the politician from the narrative that is most important to them, but the reality is that the populism that is sweeping Europe is very different from America, but the question is feeding into the narrative of the populists and in some cases has successfully been used to elect politicians, but issues that alienate are because the message coming from Liberal political discourse is failing to land onto an electorate that sees the politician as alien to the concerns that most affect them.