April 16, 2020
The Coronavirus Is Exposing Populists’ Hollow Politics
At first, the spread of the coronavirus seemed like a boon for Europe’s populists. In Italy, Matteo Salvini, the leader of the far-right League party, used COVID-19 to advance his xenophobia. Salvini circulated a video of a migrant ship arriving in Italy, falsely implying that migrants were responsible for the outbreak. Along with other far-right leaders in Europe, Salvini also used Europe’s border closures as another opportunity to vilify the European Union and its commitment to the free movement of people.
Yet the continuing crisis is having the opposite effect—it’s exposing Salvini’s shortcomings and undermining many of the drivers that fueled his support. Since the start of the pandemic, Salvini’s public support has fallen to its lowest point since July 2018. But rather than ushering in gains for Italy’s more centrist, mainstream parties, Brothers of Italy—a party to the right of even Salvini’s League, with ties to fascism—has gained in the polls.
Read the full article in Foreign Policy.
More from CNAS
-
Technology Policy in the Transatlantic Alliance, with Frances Burwell and Tyson Barker
Podcast
Frances Burwell and Tyson Barker join Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Carisa Nietsche to discuss transatlantic technology policy, the EU’s Digital Compass, and where the U.S. and Eu...
By Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Carisa Nietsche, Frances Burwell & Tyson Barker
-
How the United States can protect democracy from China and Russia
Commentary
Beijing and Moscow present distinct challenges and use different tactics to pursue their goals....
By David Shullman & Patrick Quirk
-
All Politics Is Personalized
Commentary
Leaders are amassing more power relative to their political parties so politics more strongly reflects the leader’s preferences rather than being a bargaining process among mu...
By Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Erica Frantz & Joseph Wright
-
Europe–Russia Relations Today, with Kadri Liik and Dmitri Trenin
Podcast
Kadri Liik and Dmitri Trenin join Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Jim Townsend to discuss the current state of Europe-Russia relations and how the United States should approach Russ...
By Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Jim Townsend, Dmitri Trenin & Kadri Liik
