Known for its rich history of attracting the masses of voters, populism became one of the main electoral appeals for multiple politicians in different countries both inside and outside Europe. Even though the ideology is not mandatorily non-democratic, it represents a great challenge for liberal-representative democracy, especially in the post-COVID-19 context. The aim of this paper is to identify the main strategies deployed by populist parties in contemporary politics by looking at Italy’s Brothers of Italy and Spain’s Podemos. Using discourse analysis, we examine the types of electoral campaign tactics used in the two countries, the communities targeted, the ads created, the main topics in speeches, as well as the agenda of the parties. We show how these populist politicians' behaviours emphasize anti-establishment reactions, which, in the case of Italy, create distrust at the national level, and eurosceptic attitudes that converge into a more nationalist approach, while in Spain they pave the path for progressive policies. Comparing the different electoral systems that facilitated the rise to power of the incumbent governments, we look at how both feminism and the ideological left-right divide play a part in the re-emergence of populism as the new “spectre of Europe”.
Keywords: populist governments, euroscepticism, nationalist attitudes, anti-establishment sentiments, progressive policies.