Some heralded Marine Le Pen’s loss in last year’s French elections as the “defeat of populism.” Far-right Pen convincingly lost to Centrist Macron. However, the situation in France is unique to Europe, and although Pen lost the elections, she still received about 42% of the votes. Populism has not been wiped out in France. On the contrary, it has grown steadily over the years. Similarly, Georgia Meloni’s Brother of Italy party, known for Eurocentric ideologies, won the 2022 general election 2022 in Italy.
More recently, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and Greece are other nations where left- and right-wing populism has been seeing a marked rise. Nationalism, Euroscepticism, anti-immigration, and policies that focus on national interests have been some common characteristics of these campaigns. Nonetheless, it would be wrong to paint these populist movements with a single brush. Every country has a set of issues and fears that may give rise to populism in that country. High youth unemployment has fueled public disenchantment in some countries like Greece, France, and Italy. However, the dynamics are significantly different in Switzerland, where the quality of life is among the best in Europe, and the unemployment rate is meager. Yet Switzerland is often called the ‘cradle of populist movements’ in Europe. The bottom line is that it is too simplistic to paint populism as a one-size-fits-all solution. Every country has its own set of reasons for the rise and success of populism.
Social Media such as Facebook, YouTube, Google-based interactive platforms, blogs, Twitter, etc., have allowed people to form opinions faster, take sides, and form interest........