Populism and International Crises

The wars in Ukraine and Gaza have brought international crises back to the forefront of the European political agenda after a prolonged period of relative eclipse. Both conflicts have posed new challenges to political actors, particularly populist parties that are typically characterized by their contestation of the liberal international order. Drawing on original survey data, this article examines the effects of individual attitudes towards the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza on electoral support for populist parties in France, Germany, and Italy in the 2024 European elections. The analysis sheds light on the different dynamics associated with the specific nature, salience, and sets of issues produced by each crisis. While attitudes towards the wars in Ukraine and Gaza significantly affect the likelihood of voting for populist parties, we must disaggregate populism along ideological lines and across national contexts, as well as according to the heterogeneous positions adopted by those parties, including within the same ideological family.