Challengers or the Establishment? How Populists Talk About Populists

Several western European countries recently experienced the establishment ofmore than one populist actor in their party system. While we know howpopulists attack the political mainstream, we lack knowledge on howpopulists talk about other populist actors. Conducting content analysis ofcampaigning communication on Twitter and 23 interviews with populist MPsin Germany, Italy and Spain–countries characterised by the presence ofvarious populisms–wefind that populists demonise each other perceivingthemselves as adversaries. Populists attribute a malicious and extremistcharacter to the (populist) opponent when the latter is ideologically distantindicating the decisive role of host ideologies. Positive evaluations only occurby overlapping policy position. Some specificities emerge in Italy, whereestablished populists behave more like the mainstream. Being populist assuch does not unify political actors in thefight against the establishment:populists appear at least as hostile towards other anti-establishment partiesas towards the mainstream.