A Europe of populisms: Convergence and diversity

The European elections of 2014 were characterized by the rise of populist parties. Using cross-national data from the “Comparative Electoral Dynamics in the European Union in 2014” survey, this paper looks at what motivates voters to vote for both left and right-wing populists, and the relationship between populist voting and EU integration across contributor and recipient EU member states. We find that supporters of populist parties on the left and right demonstrate higher levels of mistrust towards political institutions in both groups of countries, while diverging in terms of their economic and sociocultural attitudes. Left-wing populist supporters in receiving countries tend to be more skeptical regarding EU integration than the populist left in contributing countries. In the latter, Euroscepticism has a marginal effect on support for left-wing populist parties, while it has a strong impact on right-wing populist voting in relation to cultural conservatism, anti-globalization, and economic protectionism.