Populist (dis)engagement with international parliamentary institutions: Central Europeans in the EP and PACE

How do populist politicians behave in international parliamentary institutions? Although there is a rapidly growing literature on the foreign policy of populist executive actors, the manifestation of populism as a thin-centred ideology in an international parliamentary setting is not yet understood. This paper aims to alleviate this knowledge gap by analysing how Central European populist parties engaged with the European Parliament (EP) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in 2019-2024, focusing on the highly politicised issues of the rule of law and democracy, immigration, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Using a mixed-methods approach combining statistical analysis with qualitative case studies, we find that the type of international parliamentary institution strongly indicates populists’ tendency to disengage from the institution, while being a member of a far-right party had a significant positive effect on voting against resolutions and abstaining or not voting.