The rhetorical contestation of populism in four European parliaments (2010–2020)

Studies of the discursive aspect of populism have tended to focus on the rhetorical manifestations of populist discourses, namely how populist politicians ‘talk politics’. However, scant attention has been devoted to how politicians rhetorically characterise the concept of populism itself. This article investigates a corpus (N = 4.835) of parliamentary debates in Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, to assess the different definitions of populism used by politicians and explain any variations found. Results show that the ways that politicians describe populism vary cross-nationally in terms of topics, adjectives and targets. A more positive attitude towards populism is likely for politicians who express anti-elitism and opposition to multiculturalism and corruption, regardless of the topic under discussion. Moreover, the effect of political ideology on politicians’ attitudes towards populism is more pronounced when economic topics are under discussion. Discussing these findings, this study offers interesting implications for the literature on populism, parliamentary affairs, party politics and text analysis. Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at: https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2021.2013655.