Populism and the politics of misinformation

UK: Between Managed Moderation and Far-Right Conspiracy Theories

“…Nigel Farage took the opportunity of the pandemic to fight for some questionable goals while deploying established right-wing populist tropes. The thematical proximity of right-wing populism to conspiracism as established in previous research (Bergmann, 2018) is also evident in the communication of Farage on social media and in his political messaging in the media and at rallies. Given that Nigel Farage had left his seat in the European Parliament (EP) as a result of Brexit before the pandemic captured the national awareness in Britain, most of his statements on COVID-19 have been uttered either in the media or posted on social media.…”

From populism to the “plandemic”: why populists believe in COVID-19 conspiracies

“…We argue thatbeyond and in addition to the widely discussed link between (far-right) ideology and conspiracy belief (see, e.g. van Prooijen, Krouwel, and Pollet 2015;Freeman et al 2020; it is citizens' populist world-view that fosters conspiracy belief (Oliver and Rahn 2016;Castanho Silva, Vegetti, and Littvay 2017;Bergmann 2018;van Prooijen 2018). In particular, we aim to expand previous work by studying the underlying link between citizens' populist attitudes and their conspiracy belief in the realm of COVID-19.…”

Between Mitigation and Dramatization: The Effect of the COVID-19 Crisis on Populists’ Discourses and Strategies

“…Aside from some initial (and careless) statements by Boris Johnson and some comments between Farage and Trump, in the EU this kind of populist governmental style seems to be absent. It is also somewhat surprising that no leaders analysed here have given credit to or supported the conspiracy theories that are usually an integral part of populist strategy (Bergmann, 2018). In France, the debate around the chloroquine (HCQ) issue could have been endorsed by populist leaders, while in fact all the main French political actors distanced themselves from this scientific controversy when the debate became too sticky.…”