The Power of Anti-Establishment Messages in Romania during Recent Years

First Name
Mihaela
Last Name
Ilie
Institution/University
University of Craiova
Conference Panels
Paper/Abstract submission

The trend of recent years shows that in many countries of the world, and especially in European countries, radical populist tendencies are on the rise. Many political actors – European parties and important world leaders – promoted and legitimised ideas falling within the broader spectrum of right-wing populist radicalism. The rise of nationalist, populist, anti-establishment and even Eurosceptic tendencies led to substantial changes not only in the political landscape, but also in the way people think and act in general. In Romania, during recent years, anti-establishment rhetoric was used more often and for some parties this rhetoric became an important part of their electoral platform and thus one of the reasons their members were voted for. The aim of the presentation is therefore to observe the receptivity of Romanians to anti-establishment messages and to identify possible explanations of voters' attraction to this relatively new type of political approach.