Abstrakt
Movements which challenge political elites and propose the reform of current democracy are usually depicted in terms of informal politics or 'anti-politics'. This is the case of the movement DiEM25, which claims further democratization of the European Union in order to give voice to the people.
Opposing the party politics and 'technocrats', DiEM25 offers an alternative to current democracy and calls for major changes in the way of doing politics. In my contribution, I am going to discuss populistic features of DiEM25 and its relationship to party politics.
Drawing upon an analysis of texts produced by DiEM25, I am going to argue that such movement can be seen as another type of political elites rather than anti-politicians. By the critique of technocratic government, DiEM25 tries to bring back political discussions and deliberation.
In advocating their ideas, members of DiEM25 use populist tools similar to populistic parties. On the other hand, DiEM25 distinguishes itself from traditional politics and by using populist discourse, they reproduce general distrust in party politics.