"When the establishment is not fulfilling the needs of the majority of people in society, forms of populism often emerge to fill the vacuum. What we have seen this year is the sudden rise of the right-wing factions of the movement. But we must note that as a political ideology, it doesn't necessarily have sole affiliations with just this side," Dr. Marina Prentoulis, a senior lecturer in politics at the University of East Anglia, said.
Speaking at the 'Decoding the rise of populism in US and European politics' event in London, Dr. Prentoulis said:
"An effective response to right-wing populism could in fact be a populist left opposition, which in the case of the UK would require the likes of a party leader, such as Jeremy Corbyn of Labour, who himself is not a populist by nature, to become the political opposite of what Donald Trump is in the US and what Marine Le Pen in France represents."
According to Dr. Prentoulis, populist movements are led by the voice of a strong leader who speaks directly to the public in a language that the majority can identify with, and who is seen as someone who can represent the pressing issues that matter to the people.
"In the absence of one strong opposition party or leader fighting against the rise of right-wing populism, I would suggest for a group of opposition parties to begin a dialogue around forging progressive alliances, or some form of cross-party agreement, which could encourage collaboration in a collective manner against stronger new movements."
Not a bad way to vote — in the transition to a new cross-party alliance. The key issue is to show the government what a mess they have made. https://t.co/NGOz8cua8J
— Joe Pajak (@JoePajak) December 1, 2016
Robert Singh, a Professor of Politics at Birkbeck, University of London, speaking at the same forum said that if it wasn't for the electoral college voting system in the US, Hilary Clinton would have won based on her receiving the more popular vote in overall numbers.
"In Europe, we will most likely see the likes of Marine Le Pen in France lose in their elections. We have already seen in Austria how their election vote resulted against the rise of nationalist factions of their system, which to me suggests that it is not as strong a populist movement here as we may be led to believe," Dr. Singh said.
When asked about his thoughts on the likely political developments in the US in the nearest future, Dr. Singh said:
"I would say that we must not write-off Trump in the US just yet, as his new style of politics could just work. We must remember that in reality political success is determined by policies and what the people of America will want to see beyond the dominating identity politics we have seen much of this year, and whether Mr. Trump can put some real flesh on the bone."
"In the UK, in my opinion the left side of our political system have very much failed the public. But already we are seeing the emergence of the likes of Liberal Democrats gaining popularity over both the Tories and Labour in some locations. So it will be interesting to see how the Labour party manage these challenges ahead. When it comes to Brexit, it is very much determined by PM Theresa May's soft or hard Brexit direction and the consequences of an acceptance or rejection of a proposed Brexit plan for the Tories in 2017," Professor Singh told Sputnik.
Commenting on the correlation between the style of populism that displays harmful nationalistic rhetoric and the rise in xenophobia, Dr. Prentoulis said:
"This is very much a time of emerging monsters when it comes to the new discourse of nationalism and my solution is yet again a combination of left-wing populism and a broader unifying of positive voices. We must work towards spreading a culture of collaborating in a collective manner in response."
"If I'm honest, I'd very much like to see populism of any kind to remove itself from mainstream politics, as I don't see it as a movement that can bring people together in any way. By its very nature divisive and so its failure could take us back to a clear-cut left or right-wing style of traditional politics which is what I'd like to see again," Professor Singh said.
