Transnational Populism, the European Constitution, and Constitutional Resistance

European political leaders, such as Martin Schulz in November 2017, frequently invoke the need for a Constitution of Europe. In the same month as Schulz’s proposal, the European Commission initiated the so-called Article 7 procedure against Poland because of the latter’s infringement of fundamental European values. It seems clear that even more than a decade after the failed attempt to adopt a European political constitution, constitutionalism is still a highly visible as well as contested dimension in the European, transnational arena. It is hence no surprise that the constitutionalization of European and transnational law is a well-developed field of scholarly research and debate, not least in an extensive, even if now somewhat subsided, debate on constitutional pluralism. Within these debates, there is, however, relatively little attention for the role of civil society and social movements in engaging with transnational constitutional developments. Some of the recently emerged transnational movements engage with European constitutionalism, and do so in a particularly populist fashion. The paper has a dual objective. On one hand, it wants to contribute to the analysis of the role of transnational movements in European constitutional politics. The aim is to provide a more sustained discussion and analysis of the constitutional mobilization, claims, and resistance by (networks of) social movements and civil society organizations in the EU, in particular focusing on articulated constitutional critique and the promotion of critical and alternative constitutional narratives and projects. On the other, it seeks to analyse the manifestation of populism in transnational movements, analysing references to a European people and its sovereignty, anti-establishment views and claims, and the dimensions of destituent and constituent politics.