ABSTRACT
In the last two decades, populist movements and parties have been on the rise all over the world. Politicians who have been labelled as populists currently govern the world’s four largest democracies: Brazil, Indonesia, the U.S.A. and India. In Europe, too, populism is no longer restricted to the margins of politics and society. Populists are governing in Hungary, Poland, Italy, Switzerland and Norway, sometimes alone, sometimes as part of coalitions. Even where they are not (yet) officially in power, they have grown stronger and have shaped political agendas, as the Brexit campaign or discussions about the refugee ‘crisis’ in Germany and other countries show. Conspiracy theories have played a major role in these debates. Populist leaders – from Trump to Maduro, and from Orbán to Le Pen – often use conspiracist rhetoric, and many of their followers are receptive to it.
