Populism cannot be defeated by chasing after it

There is a mistake that Europe risks making when trying to understand why populism is on the rise: thinking that the problem lies solely in the strength of its xenophobic, sovereignist and anti-European impulses. Those impulses matter. But they do not explain everything. Populists thrive above all when they manage to offer a scapegoat to citizens who perceive real problems: low wages, low productivity, high energy costs, businesses stifled by complicated regulations, and the fear of falling behind the United States and China.

It is here that Fabio Panetta’s remarks, delivered yesterday in Rome at the Confartigianato assembly, become politically significant. The Governor of the Bank of Italy points out that no European country, on its own, is now large enough to compete with the world’s major economies. He sets out a list of tasks that Europe is well aware of: completing the single market, reducing energy costs, investing in new technologies, and channelling more resources towards productive investment. He then adds the crucial point: “Queste priorità sono ormai note”. Now they must be transformed “rapidly into decisions, investments and, above all, concrete results”. This is the political problem. Populism claims: if you’re worse off, it’s the fault of foreigners, of Brussels, of globalisation, of the euro, of the elites. Europe cannot respond merely by explaining that these targets are misguided. It must demonstrate that it can tackle the problems that make those targets seem credible. Panetta puts it in simple terms: “The answer to these problems is not to shut ourselves off from the rest of the world, but to make Europe stronger, more productive and better able to innovate.” The battle against populism, therefore, cannot be won with more pro-European rhetoric. It is won by finally delivering on what Europe has been promising for years. Scapegoats work when solutions fail to materialise. The best way to starve the populists of oxygen is to deprive them of the real problems on which they base their misguided responses.