The rule of law as a cornerstone of anti-populism in the European institutions

In recent years, in the EU, right-wing populist governments, mainly from Visegrad countries, have undermined the rule of law by ruling against pillars of liberal democracies such as the judiciary, Parliament, civil society organisations, and the media, or have threatened to do so. Alleged violations of the rule of law have pushed the European Parliament to start the process that could lead to triggering Art.7 against Hungary; more recently, a series of reforms in Poland have sparked a lively debate about the rule of law and its violations in the EU. As the rule of law is considered a foundational element of the European Union that guarantees fundamental rights and values, attacks on it can constitute a severe risk to the reputation, functioning, and maintenance of the EU building. This chapter uses official documents and EU parliamentary debates between 2021 and 2023 to reconstruct how populist and non-populist forces struggle to discursively construct and reconstruct the role of the rule of law in the EU. We suggest that the debate over the rule of law has been strategic in the (re)construction of an anti-populist bloc within the EU institutions, as it recreates to the opposed field of populists and anti-populists in a previously much more fragmented political arena. The “anti-populist” discourse centred on the rule of law aims at overturning the populist claim to represent the "people" and suggesting, instead, that populists are the ‘real enemies of the people’, while EU institutions represent and defend European citizens against the illiberal reforms of populists. The chapter posits and articulates the struggle between populist and anti-populist forces in the EU context and identifies different and generally incompatible concepts of democracy as emblematic of the two blocs.