Populist and Radical Left-wing Parties in Europe during the Great Recession

The 2008 Great Recession has produced changes in the electoral evolution of radical left parties in Europe. The radical left has experienced a modest growth that has reversed previous electoral declines. However, the electoral support for radical left parties has been unequal across Europe and only in a few cases they have been able to make significant breakthroughs. Two of these cases are the Greek Syriza, and the Spanish Podemos, Both have overpassed other radical left parties in their respective countries, but show important differences in their organizational trajectories. While Syriza has its origin in the ‘traditional’ radical left, Podemos is a completely new social or radical-left populist party. The goal of this paper is to examine in which way these electorates are similar despite their parties’ dissimilarities, how they resemble the radical left electorate, and the degree to which they look like the populist electorate described in the literature.