Abstrakt
On Monday May 23 and Tuesday May 24, 2016 a second year of international Prague Populism Conference was held in Prague. The conference was organized by the Institute of International Studies at Charles University and the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Prag.
The venue of the conference was the Goethe-Institut which provided a very representative character of the whole event. The conference was under the auspices of the rector of Charles University, prof.
Tomáš Zima, and the ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, H.E. Arndt Freiherr Freytag von Loringhoven who also opened the public part of the event.
The intention of this event in Prague was to analyze and examine the growth of contemporary European populism. This radicalization and the spread of populism represent one of the most acute challenges to European liberal democracies.
To understand the dynamics of populist behaviour and strategies in European societies, it was important to analyse the (mis)use by populists of the current refugee crisis, major geopolitical events, terrorism, economic and social grievances and the lack of solidarity among the EU member states. The conference was focusing also on another important aspect, which is the penetration of the mainstream political space by populist attitudes and the resulting shift in the entire political landscape within the EU.
The conference was dedicated to a comparative analysis of individual EU member states where populism represents a significant trend in politics. To understand the nature of the success of populists on general level and in individual countries, various researchers from all around Europe discussed causes of this phenomenon.
Within this context, the conference encouraged papers on the topics of conceptualisation and approaches towards European populism; populist attitudes towards refugees and migrants; populism and new social movements in Europe.