Migrants and 'Patria'. The imagined community of the radical left in Spain

Josep Lobera

doi:10.5209/tekn.66912

Abstract

The emergence of inclusive populist parties disputes the social construction of the ‘people’ to the exclusive populism, recently generating new academic debates. Do the new radical left parties have a nationalist character? Are populism and nationalism two inseparable dimensions? Drawing on an original dataset in Spain, this article shows that Podemos’ supporters are significantly less nationalist, expressing more open attitudes towards cultural diversity and immigration, and lower levels of Spanishness than voters from other parties. Arguably, Podemos operates as an antagonistic political option to the traditional positions of the populist radical right (PRR), building an inclusive imagined community around a type of constitutional patriotism or republican populism. These findings contribute to the scholar debate on the relationship of nationalism and populism, bringing to discussion the core values of the supporters of a populist party as a complementary element to its categorization.

Highlights

We are living in times of strong feelings about the position of migration in relation to the nation
Against the exclusionary politics emerging in European populist movements – such as the Spanish Vox, the French Front National (National Front), the Belgian Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest), and the Austrian Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (Freedom Party of Austria)– the emergence of inclusive social protest movements has allowed for the dispute about the social construction of the ‘people’ (Žižek, 2016; Mudde & Rovira-Kaltwasser, 2013; Lobera & Parejo, 2019)
Public support of the populist radical right (PRR) in Europe has increased since the late 1980s

Summary

Introduction

We are living in times of strong feelings about the position of migration in relation to the nation. Against the exclusionary politics emerging in European populist movements – such as the Spanish Vox, the French Front National (National Front), the Belgian Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest), and the Austrian Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (Freedom Party of Austria)– the emergence of inclusive social protest movements has allowed for the dispute about the social construction of the ‘people’ (Žižek, 2016; Mudde & Rovira-Kaltwasser, 2013; Lobera & Parejo, 2019). Public support of the populist radical right (PRR) in Europe has increased since the late 1980s. There is, a lack of evidence on the link between the electoral support for inclusive populist parties, such as Podemos or Syriza, and their new conceptions of the nation and citizenship

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