The Evolution of Populism: An Analysis of the Evolution of the Populist Message of Podemos (2014-2019).

Unlike other countries, the rise of populism in Spain has not been progressive but completely abrupt. Founded just four months before the 2014 European elections, Podemos became the fourth party in votes and seats in the country. A year later, the party and its local confluences reached the Government in the country’s largest cities (Madrid and Barcelona), other medium-sized capitals (e.g. Cádiz) and became the parliamentary support of six regional governments. In the general elections of 2015, Podemos was the third party in votes and seats at the national level. For the 2016 elections, Izquierda Unida agreed to run together with Podemos, under a coalition labelled Unidos Podemos, an agreement that has been maintained to this day. After the motion of censure in June 2018, the party became the main parliamentary support of the Socialist government and, since January 2020, it is part of the coalition government led by the socialist Pedro Sánchez. Considering, therefore, the party’s electoral success, its participation in legislative and executive institutions, as well as its alliance with the radical left and the collaboration with the mainstream left, this article aims to analyse the evolution of the party’s populist message. For this purpose, a content analysis of the electoral manifestos presented by the party since its foundation in 2014 until the 2019 elections has been carried out. Preliminary results suggest that Podemos’s populist message does not follow a linear trend: Populist messages have not been reduced in quantitative terms. However, these seem to evolve towards an economic framework rather than a political one. In addition to that, the party’s populist message seems to evolve from a generalized demonization of the political elite to a discourse that confronts the two left/right ideological blocs. These findings suggest that the party has evolved from being a populist party with a left-wing orientation to a party clearly located on the ideological left with a populist orientation.