Who is being called populist?

Abstract

This presentation will present preliminary results of the broader Action de recherche concertée project Discourse, populism and democracy. Tracking the uses of populism in media and political discourse (TrUMPo). As such, it offers an interdisciplinary approach drawing on linguistics, communication science and political science to the question who is being called populist. More concretely, we will show how the label 'populist' is used in 2019 press, parliament and Twitter discourse from Belgium, France and Spain, by looking into who labels whom as populist, as well as with which aim this is being done. We will show that 'populist' is not only used to refer to persons or groups that are considered as populist in academia but is also regularly used to discredit an opponent and occasionally to (self-)enhance by claiming a stronger link with and/or representativeness of the people. Thus, in general societal debate, the term 'populist' is used in a much broader sense than in academia, leading at times to mismatches as to the discussions concerning populism and or populists. With this contribution, we aim to contribute to a clearer understanding of how the term 'populist' is used in society at large in Belgium, France and Spain.