The Emergence of New Forms of Populisms? Evidence from Southern Europe

Over the past years, parties such as Podemos in Spain, the 5 Star Movement in Italy and Syriza in Greece have become increasingly prominent in both the political and institutional domestic scene. The three South European parties have been examined individually (Hernandez and Fraile, 2014 ; Corbetta and Gualmini, 2013 ; Bordignon and Ceccarini, 2013 ; Tsakatika and Eleftheriou, 2013) but to date not in comparative perspective. The purpose of this paper is to provide a comparative analytical framework, and argue that the crisis has produced a new form of populism which is quite different from the more classic radical right variant. The paper will revisit the existing literature on radical right populisms (RRP) and draw insights from it, but it will argue that new conceptual tools need to be developed in order to fully understand the new political phenomena that have shook Spanish, Italian and Greek political systems.