The march of Europe’s little Trumps
The euro crisis boosted the populist vote because it hit specific groups of voters especially hard. Support for xenophobic populism is strongest among those who are older, non-university-educated, working-class, white and male (see chart). These voters do not think they benefit much from EU membership, but they certainly felt the effects of the crisis: tax hikes, benefit cuts and unemployment. Populists blamed austerity measures on untrustworthy Greeks and Spaniards, or on the EU’s strict budget-deficit limits, or both.
.. In June Mr Salvini responded to Pope Francis’s calls to welcome refugees by acidly demanding how many migrants the Vatican City has accepted (other than the pope himself, presumably)... Crucially, the populists offer more than just opposition to immigrants and Islam. Most combine cultural conservatism with left-wing economic policies that please their older, less-educated supporters. Poland’s PiS is lowering the retirement age and promising state aid for the country’s inefficient coalminers. France’s FN supports a lower retirement age and more protectionist agricultural policies. Mr Wilders demands that money now spent to house migrants be spent on cancer treatment for Dutch citizens... Governments that offer benefits to refugees but subject their own citizens to austerity play into the populists’ hands... Grumbling that refugees are treated better than citizens was once frowned upon in Sweden. The Sweden Democrats do not care. “We say what people think,” says Julia Kronlid, an SD deputy. This is another shared trait of Europe’s right-wing populists: the belief that rather than expressing obnoxious prejudices, they are voicing truths which others are too politically correct to admit... As populists take up ever more room in parliaments, says Paul Scheffer, a Dutch sociologist, mainstream right- and left-wing parties must form coalitions with each other simply in order to govern. This sucks the energy out of right-left politics, and confirms the populist argument that government is a stitch-up by a clubby elite.