Opposition to populism in Italy and Spain 2013-2021: Conditions, patterns, and outcomes

In the last decade, populist parties have become increasingly popular and achieved positions in government in several European countries. In southern Europe, new populist parties from both left and right became pivotal in national and local government coalitions, including the far left Podemos and the far-right Vox in Spain, and the radical right Lega and the multi-faceted Five Star Movement in Italy. The surge of these parties has raised several concerns: opponents have claimed populist parties to be unfit for government, illiberal, and anti-democratic. Given the recent history in both countries with authoritarian regimes and radical violent actors, claims of illiberal anti-democratic behavior may suggest that opponents have pursued exceptional “intolerant” initiatives to hinder the access of populist power to political power, drawing on norms of militant democracy, ostracism, and/or the use of coercion. Nevertheless, Italian and Spanish opponents have primarily enacted traditional, “tolerant” forms of opposition against populist parties. Why do the claims and practices of opponents to populism diverge? In this article-based dissertation, I explore the gap between discursive and performative practices among the opponents to populist parties in Italy and Spain. I developed a comparative study in two countries with multiple populist parties, aiming at defining patterns, conditions, and outcomes of initiatives opposing populism (IoPPs).