Description
The rationale of the panel is to explore the socio-economic and political concerns/agendas of political groups (political parties, movements etc.) usually associated with populism in South East Europe.
Populism manifests itself in different versions in this region. For instance, in the Western Balkan countries like Serbia under Vucic’s leadership, populist nationalist narratives are strongly present. The populist forces usually put the blame on an external ‘enemy’, for example, foreigners, ethnic minorities, refugees and others. However, populist movements can be nationalist and rightist, but can also be found among greens and leftist movements or a variety of political ideologies, and can appeal to many different things. This phenomenon has recently attracted attention from scholars focusing on the radical left and left-wing contexts of populism in South East Europe in particular Greece under SYRIZA’s leadership. Another type of populism in this region is also discussed in the case of Turkey. The Islamist populism led by the AKP government began to directly affect Turkish politics, especially after the coup attempt of 15 July 2016.
This panel aims to explore the emergence of the various versions of populism
in South East Europe through case studies.
