Governments Like Any Other? Populist Governments Use of ‘Unpolitics’ in EU Decision-Making and Responses by National Publics and Mainstream Governments

The role of populist governments in EU decision-making remains largely unexplored. Do they systematically act differently from mainstream governments or do they simply hold different positions on some issues but largely act like mainstream governments would? In our previous work, we analysed how populist governments operate through what can be termed ’unpolitics’. This approach involves rejecting both formal and informal decision-making rules when they conflict with their preferred outcomes, dismissing traditional compromise mechanisms, and perpetuating crises rather than resolving them. We argued that unpolitics is fundamentally linked to vote-seeking strategies, where populist governments exploit EU decision-making processes to mobilise domestic audiences. As a result, unpolitics tends to emerge in issues that offer "high gain" opportunities with "low risk," as these are easier to politicise. It is also more prevalent in settings that act as platforms or tribunes, enabling populist actors to address domestic audiences directly. In this paper, we aim to provide a more systematic analysis of the use of unpolitics in EU politics across EU institutions (Council, European Council and European Parliament) and how different responses of mainstream parties either help contain these attempts to undermine EU politics or even enable them. Lastly, we are interested in how domestic audiences respond to the attempted voter mobilisation, i.e., whether they are successful in using EU policies to mobilise domestic audiences or whether publics see through them.