Keynote Yannis Stavrakakis | Populism, anti-populism and the European Crisis: Lessons from the South.

Keynote Speech of Yannis Stavrakakis, Professor at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in cooperation with the Heinrich Böll Foundation Baden-Wuerttemberg.

From the election of Donald Trump and the BREXIT referendum to the recent Italian elections, 'populism' seems to be the keyword through which both academic discourse and public debates approach these phenomena. And yet, this picture is partial, influenced by the eurocentric association between populism, nationalism and the far right. It ignores other types of populism that have historically articulated populism with a left-wing, inclusionary profile. Drawing on Southern European experience, where such movements have emerged in a crisis-ridden context, this lecture will highlight the need to move beyond certain stereotypes in populism research, to capture the broader political antagonisms at stake and to account for the links between populism and crisis conjunctures.