Across the globe, right-wing populist movements have surged in popularity, with some already having successfully taken power, most notably in the US in 2024 with the re-election of Donald Trump. Meanwhile in Europe, Reform UK and Alternative for Germany (AfD) appear well-positioned to either shape or enter government in the near future. On the other hand, we have also seen a surge of left-wing populism, with parties such as Sinn Féin leading opinion polls in Ireland and in selected victories such as Zohran Mamdani’s recent election as Mayor of New York City.
Populism appears on both the left and the right, often drawing on the same emotional anchor that people have been failed by the system. With that being said, left-wing populism and right-wing populism are very different. They largely diverge at one key point: who the anger is directed at. Populism is not a traditional ideology; instead, it largely acts as a means to express other ideologies. It’s a way of framing viewpoints, often characterised by us vs them language. Left-wing populism mainly focuses on the cleavages between average people and the elites in society, both political and economic. On the other hand, right-wing populism often focuses on other groups, such as immigrants or marginalised groups.
Right-wing populism often frames societal issues by focusing on directing people’s anger at other groups, who may face many of the same grievances that they themselves face. This is, in my opinion, merely a means for the elites in society to distract from the ways we can solve these problems. It serves as a means for billionaires and establishment politicians to direct people’s anger toward someone else instead of themselves, thus allowing them to continue serving themselves and not the people. For example, US President Donald Trump has personally gained billions of dollars in wealth, while many Americans are still struggling to get by. This is all while he has been using Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to deport countless people and suppress protesters, with people such as Renée Good and Alex Pretti being shot and killed by government officials. President Trump uses his rhetoric to focus on dividing the working classes of America, thus diverting focus from economic grievances, which could lead to redistributive policies.
There is the key question, of course, of how do we combat this rhetoric? To fight right-wing populism, we must counteract it with left-wing populist messages. By using populist rhetoric on the left, we can shift the focus of people’s grievances towards the economic inequality we experience in society. By shifting the focus to that, it plays into the same grievances which people face, but provides an actual alternative to solve them without further marginalisation of people. Through this, we can focus on redistributive policies and policies in general, which serve to uplift rather than oppress. These types of policies can include anything from more progressive taxation to universal healthcare to more investment in social and affordable housing, all of which will help reduce the burden on working people.
The continued distraction put forward by right-wing populists leaves much of our political capital on the left focusing on fighting those oppressive measures, rather than focusing on building effective legislation to help people. This is not something that, in my opinion, can be done effectively through non-populist messages, as you need to fight fire with fire. The same messaging tactics can be used, but directed towards the core of the problems which people are focusing on. That’s not to say that other grievances can’t be addressed — they can be — but to build political momentum to enact change the core argument must be an economic one. We have seen some left-wing populist victories around the world, notably with Zohran Mamdani’s recent election as Mayor of New York City, and he used many populist tactics to build momentum. Mamdani focused on everyday economic arguments, focusing on topics ranging from childcare, to housing affordability, to free buses. It is through focusing on these types of issues that we can highlight the key problems in society and, over time, erode the momentum of right-wing populist movements. This is because this provides an alternative to the right’s messaging and to non-populist messaging, with something that, if argued well, has the potential to resonate with people even more.
