Chapter 6 The Exploitation for Populist Purposes of Difficulties in the EU – An Important Problem of the EU
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Abstract
The European Union is currently facing a rise in populist messages. To analyze them in order to find solutions, it must be assumed that there is no substance or doctrinal core of populism, which is not an ideology, as is often advocated, but merely a propaganda technique that gathers people around a theme, towards electoral success. The topics on which populist technique is applied usually have a correspondent in reality, and the political establishment is able to come up with solutions. But these require time. Instead, the populist message proposes prompt solutions, even if their implementation is often contrary to democratic law and practice.
Prior to the creation of the EU, anti-system movements, stemming from populist messages, concerned merely national systems and elites. In EU countries, these movements also target EU political system and elites. Thus, the populist messages are automatically dressed up in anti-Europeanism, although they originated in issues under the competence of the national elites or in invented problems (as happened with Brexit).
Populism does not generate unprecedented cleavages, but exploits, by radicalizing them, the existing ones. Currently there are no real material conditions for generating large anti-system movements in the EU (poor living conditions, conflicts between countries, emancipation movements, etc.), but there are more and more diverse media and many citizens have access to them (necessary conditions), and, paradoxically, there is sufficient ignorance of these citizens (sufficient condition) for a leader or a political formation to generate anti-system movements. And this happens under conditions of technicalization of politics and depoliticization of public life, phenomena that have weakened the links between the elite and the masses.
The rise of populism in European political life cannot be tackled through an equally populist counteroffensive, but by re-establishing the communication between elites and the masses in each member country, with its specific problems. In parallel, European leaders need to descend into the agora, but first we have to shape a European agora where European citizens can perceive that actual problems are being debated with actual effects. Because populism is a communication phenomenon, it must be counteracted in the field of communication. The EU and the Member States must establish institutions that would monitor the media and promptly sanction the distribution of fake news. At the same time, it is necessary to have a Europe-wide communication strategy, as well as to establish public EU television and radio networks, broadcasting in all the EU official languages. Thus, the maneuvering space of political actors who issue populist messages will become tighter.