Democratic Defence as Normal Politics: Everyday opposition to populist parties in Europe

This paper summarizes the findings of a comparative research project examining opposition to populist parties in Europe. The research used political claims and protest event analysis to map opposition to nine populist parties, Fidesz, Law and Justice, Alternative for Germany, League, Five Star Movement, Podemos and Vox. Mapping focused on opposition by public authorities and political parties, and less well-known forms of opposition by civil society actors, international and transnational actors. Our research shows that the claims making of those who disagree with populist parties often frame their opposition as the defence of democracy. Yet opposition to populist parties in Europe principally takes the form of ’normal politics’, rather than the ’politics of exception’ underpinning the rights-restricting, exclusionary model militant democracy. This is largely because populist parties in Europe do well in elections that are largely free and fair and generally have a more ambiguous relationship to liberal democracy than the extremist parties typically subject to measures of militant democracy. Moreover, successful populist parties now participate in government more often than not, putting measures of militant democracy out of reach. In addition, the research showed that underneath this broad pattern there was significant variation in the types of opposition used against different types of populist parties, including the use of tolerant and intolerant strategies by party-political opponents, the degree of international engagement, the role of courts, and the extent and nature of civil society opposition.