Federico Taddei
At the start of 2026, a meme dubbed the 'nihilist penguin' went viral. But populist media pages and extreme-right accounts soon began using edits of the meme to spread nationalist and exclusionary content.āÆFederico TaddeiāÆargues that when the alt-right exploits them, even seemingly apolitical social media trends can carry serious political implicationsĀ Read more
Fred Paxton
Independent local lists are often seen as a sign of democratic community organisation. More than that, writeĀ Fred PaxtonĀ andĀ EliÅ”kaĀ DrĆ”palovĆ”, their rise mayĀ actually limitĀ the success of populist parties among voters disenchanted with mainstream politics Read more
Mattia Zulianello
Mattia ZulianelloāÆintroduces the PopulisTree, a new taxonomy and open-access dataset that maps the full diversity of populist parties across Europe over recent decades. Building upon and expanding the existing PopuList database, The PopulisTree helps scholars, journalists, and policymakers analyse one of the most important political phenomena of our timesĀ Read more
John Ryan
A Jordan Bardella presidency would representĀ the most significant reconfiguration of executive power since the Fifth Republicās founding. Even without a radical policy rupture, the symbolic impact on democratic norms and institutional trust would be profound, including significant risksĀ for the EU, argues John RyanĀ Read more
Ugo Gaudino
Left-wing populistsĀ tend to be inclusionaryĀ and egalitarian towards ethnic minorities. ButāÆUgo Gaudino points out that their defence of Muslim communitiesā religious grievancesĀ often clashes with their secular agenda. While they may de-securitiseĀ Islam,Ā they frameĀ other issues and groups as urgent security threats, in line withĀ theĀ populistĀ friend-versus-enemyĀ conceptionĀ of politicsĀ Read more
Francesco Vittonetto
Brought together by a shared ideology, converging around global events, and united in their support for radical-right leaders,Ā populist audiences on social media are becoming increasingly global. Francesco VittonettoĀ discussesĀ why we canĀ now startĀ talkingĀ aboutĀ transnationalĀ populist publicsĀ Read more
Manoel Gehrke
We often attribute populismās rise to structural factors ā economic insecurity, digital technology, and cultural backlash. But Manoel Gehrke and Feng Yang reveal a more immediate trigger: former leaders' conviction for corruption. In less democratic contexts, these rulings open the door for governments to amplify personalistic appeals ā and boost their popularity Read more
Maurits Meijers
Populist rhetoric often pits a virtuous people against a corrupt elite. But when populist leaders invoke these definitions, do they always mean the same thing? Maurits Meijers, Robert A. Huber, and Andrej Zaslove explore the role of ideology in such definitions, shedding light on why populism remains a powerful political force Read more
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