Prof. Roberto Blancarte, PhD

This project will analyse populism and its relationship to religion and secularity in Europe and Latin America. Populism has been a widespread phenomenon at least since the second half of the 20th century, albeit with different manifestations. Today, politicians on both sides of the Atlantic represent some of its characteristics: anti-globalism, nationalism, nativism, protectionism, anti-migration and xenophobic discourses and other elements of a political culture based on isolationist ideals.

Religion has often played an ambivalent role in populist regimes. It has often been used as an identity marker to establish national cultures and to exclude others that are portrayed as "foreign intruders" or "internal enemies". Even secular populisms often had and still have a complex and ambivalent relationship with religious groups and institutions. Whether they form formal or non-formal alliances with them, use them politically or integrate them into their ideological schemes, while in the long run these alliances usually ended in open conflict. In their "struggle" against supposedly evil and corrupt elites, populisms often establish a binary world view that divides everything and everyone into friend and foe, allies or rivals, leaving no room for intermediate positions.

Boris Johnson, Matteo Salvini and other politicians in Western, Central or Eastern Europe have many similarities with Jair Bolsonaro, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Evo Morales or Nicolás Maduro in Latin America. As a result of political calculation or sincere religious convictions, they have in various ways reintroduced the sacred or religious into the sphere of the state. In most cases, this reintroduction implied a new understanding of the role of religion in politics. Frequently, however, it is not the traditional churches that strengthen, but an individualised, eclecticist religiosity, recycled and remixed into religious traditions and then used as a new legitimising force. In this constellation, the paradoxical situation of a continuous secularisation of society can be observed, while at the same time the political influence of religion is growing.

In Latin America a populism with very specific political characteristics has developed: "clientelism" that creates political dependence, especially with regard to elections. This leads to an "infantilisation" of the social sector and paternalistic attitudes: The "good people" must be guided here and protected from evil agents who harm them. For this reason, in many cases "caudillism" and messianic signs appear. The political leader relies on religious or sacred sources to legitimise his power and tends to have a double role, as high priest who makes moral judgements and as government leader who makes political decisions.

In European populisms, religion plays a different role. Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia have changed the secular atmosphere and brought the historical role of Christianity back into the discussion, rethinking identities and pluralism. It has also questioned the role of democratic institutions. Nationalism and isolationism have also shaken the authority of traditional religions and changed the entire political culture of many countries.