Populist Euroscepticism in Polish politics (POPREBEL Task 4.4)

Natasza Styczyńska and Jan Meijer of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków explain their research on populist Euroscepticism in Polish politics as part of the POPREBEL framework.

Task 4.4 of POPREBEL investigates the phenomenon of populist Euroscepticism through the case of Poland. Although populism and Euroscepticism often go together in politics, they are considered to be ‘distinct but intersecting phenomena’. This project studies to what extent and how Polish political parties combine populist and Eurosceptic sentiments in their political discourse. For this, a wide range of materials is examined, including parliamentary debates, party programmes and political speeches for the years 2015-2020. A thorough analysis of populist Euroscepticism in Poland is important to better understand how support and opposition to various aspects of European integration is (re-)produced in Polish politics.