Laut einer neuen Studie aus 13 europäischen Ländern wählen populistische Parteien absichtlich spaltende Themen. Sie präsentieren die Botschaft im Allgemeinen auch auf eine populistischere Art und Weise mit einer antiliberalen Sprache. Der Zweck besteht offenbar oft darin, Außenstehende auszuschließen und den Eindruck zu erwecken, dass „sie gegen uns“ seien.

I’ve linked to the press release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/10718

From the linked article:

**Populist parties choose divisive issues on purpose, researchers say**

Populists use controversial issues to a far greater extent than other issues to promote their political messages. This is deliberate.

With this as a backdrop, it is tempting for some political parties to raise so-called “wedge issues”. These are controversial issues that divide voters. They can easily be used strategically in an election campaign to create strong emotions and sow doubt about other political parties’ ability and willingness to address them.

The researchers analyzed 8748 Facebook posts from parties in **13 countries**. They looked at both whether the posts raised controversial issues, and how these issues were presented, if any.

Perhaps the main finding is not surprising in itself, but it may be surprising that the result is so clear.

“We find that populist parties don’t just use controversial issues more. **They also generally present the message in a more populist way, with anti-liberal language**,” says Magin.

The purpose is often apparently to exclude outsiders, and create the impression that it is “them against us”.

“These are clear characteristics of digital communication for populist parties,” Magin said.

The intention may be to steer the public political discussion away from problem-solving and instead create a debate about the very liberal democratic basis of our society.