Edited by Jan Zienkowski and Ruth Breeze
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 83] 2019
► pp. 149–172
In the Danish context, populism is usually associated with the radical right-wing. However, the left-wing Red-Green Alliance (the RGA), which defines itself as socialist, has carried out a populist turn coinciding with a remarkable electoral growth from 2.2% in 2007 to 7.8% in 2015. I argue that the RGA presents a hybrid form of left-wing populism in which socialist and populist articulations converge. The discourse is socialist since equality (or struggle against inequality) is the main value; the materialist approach is dominant; and there are plenty of references to class, working-class and class struggles. It is populist in the sense that inequality is portrayed as a conflict against the elite; and there is an attempt to constitute a new collective subject named “community”. Moreover, the RGA’s opposition towards the EU connects with the populist resistance to global neoliberalism and the defense of national sovereignty.
For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].