A European Antipopulist Movement? The Emergence and Diffusion of Italian Sardines and Finnish Herrings

The scholarship on populism is abundant, yet antipopulism remains mostly neglected, especially its mobilization from below and transnationalization. This research investigates the emergence and diffusion of antipopulist mobilizations by analyzing the Italian "6000 Sardine" (Sardines) and the Finnish "Silakkaliike" (Herrings) which emerged as two movements with antipopulist claims. Drawing on extensive fieldwork including a grounded-theory approach applied to twenty-seven interviews with activists from these two movements, plus the analysis of offline and online organizational documents, this study shows the mechanisms—cognitive, affective and relational—of their national and crossnational diffusion, relating them to the opportunities of the context. The findings demonstrate that the perceived and actual similarities between the political contexts in Italy and Finland due to the presence of populist actors in politics, the relative success of the 6000 Sardine movement in mobilizing people and challenging populist actors, and the resonance of shared values and principles between the two groups, enabled both organizers and participants of the Silakkaliike to engage in a similar movement in their context. Besides, the findings also demonstrate that by challenging both populist and polarizing discourse with an inclusive and pluralist conceptualization of the people, these value-oriented movements are distinguished from the previous progressive movements (and from populism) by their focus on politicizing and mobilizing apolitical citizens from below, through socialization in squares, social media platforms and new (entertaining) repertoires of actions with a strong emphasis on positive emotions. Exploring the internal movement dynamics and actors' perceptions and motivations, this study contributes to the conceptualization of antipopulism from below, defining the main characteristics and the ideological underpinnings of these two antipopulist movements.