Populism Talks

Interview by Selcuk Gultasli

Is Trumpism a personal aberration or the direct result of neoliberal capitalism's decay? Host Selcuk Gultasli sits down with Professor Emeritus Adolph Reed Jr. (UPenn / Mount Holyoke) for a materialist critique of American politics. Professor Reed breaks down why structural contradictions will outlive Donald Trump, why identity politics erases class analysis, and why real social transformation requires p...

Interview by Selcuk Gultasli

In this wide-ranging interview with the European Center for Populism Studies (ECPS), Hanna Gedin, Member of the European Parliament for Sweden’s Vänsterpartiet (Left Party, V) and Vice-Chair of The Left Group, reflects on Sweden’s post-election political deadlock, the normalization of radical-right ideas in European policymaking, the erosion of international law, and the strategic dilemmas fa...

Interview by Selcuk Gultasli

Can Europe defend its democracy when digital power is concentrated in the hands of a few tech billionaires? Host Selcuk Gultasli speaks with MEP Brando Benifei, Chair of the European Parliament’s Delegation to the US and key figure behind the EU AI Act. Benifei breaks down the "absolute red line" of European regulatory sovereignty, warns of an emerging alliance between techno-oligarchs and the radi...

Interview by Selcuk Gultasli

American voters are experiencing deep Trump fatigue, but is anti-incumbent anger enough to save American democracy? Host Selcuk Gultasli speaks with Johns Hopkins Professor Daniel Schlozman about the 2026 midterm elections. They explore why material "deliverism" fails without strong party roots, how tech elites made peace with MAGA populism, and why rebuilding labor unions and civic institutions is the o...

Interview by Selcuk Gultasli

Clean biometric voting couldn't break Bosnia and Herzegovina's ethnopolitics on October 4. Joining host Selcuk Gultasli, University of Sarajevo Assistant Professor Dr. Jasmin Hasanović breaks down why replacing political leaders fails to fix a system where "ethnically defined power sharing is the algorithm that continuously reproduces the crisis." Discover how inter-, intra-, and cross-ethnic populisms o...

Interview by Natalia Crane

In an era of deep polarization, studying populism carries real-world consequences. In this episode, Dr. Amedeo Varriale reflects on his trajectory following the 2015 refugee crisis and Brexit, making a passionate defense of theoretical pluralism. Speaking with Natalia Crane, Dr. Varriale argues that while academics have a duty to communicate empirical evidence to journalists and policymakers, they must mai...

Interview by Selcuk Gultasli

Brazil’s October 4, 2026 presidential election produced a first-round result that significantly altered the political landscape ahead of the October 25 runoff. Flávio Bolsonaro finished first with about 47% of the vote, ahead of incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on 45.1%, while right- and far-right forces also performed strongly in congressional and gubernatorial contests. The outcome s...

Population stats, fertility rates, and migration flows aren't just objective numbers—they are being weaponized into existential political panics. Host Selcuk Gultasli covers the ECPS Panel on Demographic Populism, moderated by Dr. Klaudia Koxha and featuring scholars Oscar Mazzoleni, Alberta Giorgi, Reinhard Heinisch, Carlos de la Torre, and Carol Mason. Discover how declining birth rates, anti-abortion movements, and anti-im...

Interview by Selcuk Gultasli

Does a political movement need to win over a majority of the country to transform a major party? Host Selcuk Gultasli speaks with Northeastern University’s Associate Professor Nick Beauchamp. They explore why MAGA’s dominance over the Republican Party isn't the same as converting every voter, how democratic socialism could achieve a MAGA-sized impact inside the Democratic Party without winnin...

Interview by Selcuk Gultasli

Brazil's upcoming presidential election isn't just a domestic battle between Lulism and Bolsonarism—it's a high-stakes geopolitical contest. Host Selcuk Gultasli interviews Birkbeck Senior Lecturer Dr. Mara Nogueira to explore how US influence, economic tariffs, and the tight alignment between the Trump administration and the Bolsonaro family are shaping the vote. They break down why Lulism has bec...

Interview by Selcuk Gultasli

Bosnia and Herzegovina approaches its October 4 elections amid renewed strain on the political architecture established by the Dayton Peace Agreement. More than three decades after the end of the 1992–95 war, questions of statehood, entity autonomy, ethnic representation, foreign influence, and the legitimacy of shared institutions remain deeply intertwined. Political competition continues to be st...

Interview by Selcuk Gultasli

As the United States approaches the November 3 midterm elections, American politics is being reshaped by two powerful but asymmetrical currents: the consolidation of MAGA within a highly personalized Trump presidency and the growing visibility of democratic socialism within a Democratic coalition that remains considerably broader than its left flank. This tension provides the backdrop to the ECPS convers...

Interview by Selcuk Gultasli

Bosnia and Herzegovina approaches its October 4 elections at a moment when the country’s post-Dayton political order is once again under pressure over statehood, entity autonomy, ethnic representation, and democratic legitimacy. The campaign is shaped less by a conventional left-right divide than by competing visions of citizenship, constituent peoples, sovereignty, and the future of the Bosnian st...

Interview by Selcuk Gultasli

Sweden’s 2026 general election has brought into sharp relief a paradox that has been developing for more than a decade: the Sweden Democrats (SD) may lose electoral ground while continuing to shape the ideological and policy environment in which other parties compete. In this interview, Assistant Professor Sofie Blombäck, Senior Lecturer in Political Science at Mid Sweden University, examines this ...

Interview by Selcuk Gultasli

The interview between Selcuk Gultasli (ECPS) and Professor Wolfgang Merkel addresses the fragmentation of Germany’s political center, the rise of the AfD, and the strategies mainstream parties should use to navigate these electoral shifts.

Here is our interview with Professor Wolfgang Merkel, edited lightly to enhance clarity, readability, and overall flow for publication: https://www.populismstudie...

Interview by Selcuk Gultasli.

Giving an interview to the European Center for Populism Studies (ECPS), Associate Professor Karl Loxbo, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Political Science at Stockholm University, argues that Sweden has become an unusually far-reaching case of radical-right mainstreaming. For Assoc. Prof. Loxbo, the Sweden Democrats’ electoral setback in the September 13 election should not be read as evidence...

Interview by Selcuk Gultasli

Giving an interview to the European Center for Populism Studies (ECPS), Dr. Gefjon Off, a postdoctoral research associate in Comparative Politics at the University of Hamburg, argues that the Sweden Democrats’ electoral setback in Sweden’s September 13, 2026 election should not be mistaken for a corresponding decline in the party’s broader political influence. At the center of Dr. Off&r...

Interview by Selcuk Gultasli with Professor Adam Bodnar, constitutional lawyer, human rights scholar, Senator of Poland, and former Minister of Justice (2023–2025) and Commissioner for Human Rights (2015–2021).

In this interview with the European Center for Populism Studies (ECPS), Bodnar reflects on Poland’s experience of democratic backsliding and rule-of-law recovery following the defeat of the Law and Justice P...

Interview by Selcuk Gultasli

Germany’s party system is entering a period of profound strain as the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) expands beyond its earlier identity as a protest formation and establishes itself as a durable force across an increasingly broad range of policy domains. In this interview with the European Center for Populism Studies (ECPS), Dr. Sophie Suda, Postdoctoral Researcher in Comparative Politics at th...