"Populism, being a non-established ideological political style, is neither left nor right. There are populist leaders on the right and the left, and at both extremes. The characteristic of populism is precisely that it neutralizes the left/right difference: the "neither left nor right" represents the "anti-party" or "anti-political" dimension of populist movements. It also neutralizes the difference between a revolutionary and a conservative position [...]. Every populist leader who addresses the people claims to show them their real enemies, the "elites" (the corrupt elites), the "system", or the enemies from elsewhere (hostile foreigners, invading immigrants), and mainly the hidden enemies within the national body - hence the conspiratorial perception, which is represented by one or another "conspiracy theory", usually found in the speeches or texts of populist leaders."

(Pierre-Andre Taguieff)

"Beyond the decisive contribution of P.-A. Taguieff to the understanding of the new far-right populism, this essay helps us understand the "spontaneous" mobilization of the (Greek) "Indignant" as a miserable mobilization. According to Taguieff, we cannot fully understand this phenomenon only through the interpretive category of populism. We need to resort to the category of "victimization", focusing our analytical interest on the "display" of sympathy and unconditional praise for the "innocent victims". We need to see this mobilization as disillusioned and desperate segments of the popular and middle classes descending the social ladder as they are: mournful, saturated with the just or unjust "complaints of the victims", but also with "hatred" against the "elites", the "corrupt" ("all rotten", "all the same"), the "kleptocracy", without a real revolutionary dynamic."

(Andreas Pantazopoulos)