This paper aims to analyze the specifically political factors behind the success of two European parties labeled "populist"–“the Samoobrona movement in Poland, and the Dansk Folkeparti in Denmark. As new arrivals in their respective political landscapes, these two parties are striving to build up their resources in order to occupy a central position in the political arena by generating loyalty to the organization and by increasing the professionalization and politicization of the themes that differentiate them from their rivals. By reexamining causality in the political logic of access to official political arenas, this paper proposes that these "populist" parties are making use of the same approaches as ordinary parties, a perspective that breaks with dominant interpretations of their success.