Building left-wing populism in Denmark: Moving far away from the right

In the Danish context, populism is usually associated with the radical right-wing. However, the left-wing Red-Green Alliance (the RGA), which defines itself as socialist, has carried out a populist turn coinciding with a remarkable electoral growth from 2.2% in 2007 to 7.8% in 2015. I argue that the RGA presents a hybrid form of left-wing populism in which socialist and populist articulations converge. The discourse is socialist since equality (or struggle against inequality) is the main value; the materialist approach is dominant; and there are plenty of references to class, working-class and class struggles. It is populist in the sense that inequality is portrayed as a conflict against the elite; and there is an attempt to constitute a new collective subject named “community”. Moreover, the RGA’s opposition towards the EU connects with the populist resistance to global neoliberalism and the defense of national sovereignty.