Populism After Brexit

Pew Research Center traces how right-wing populist parties moved from Brexit-era backlash into a regular force in European elections, parliaments, coalitions, and governments, with distrust, economic pessimism, cultural grievance, and strong-leader attitudes as the main mechanism.

1. Frame 1Since Brexit, populist parties have moved through the election map from protest votes into parliaments, coalitions, and prime-minister offices.
2. Frame 2The scale changed: France's National Rally rose from 2 Assembly seats in 2016 to 123, while Germany's AfD went from 0 Bundestag seats to 150 of 630.
3. Frame 3The first driver is distrust: Pew's 2023 surveys found a 10-country median of 72% saying elected officials do not care what people like them think.
4. Frame 4Economic pressure feeds the shift: a 2024 Pew median found 70% expect today's children to be financially worse off than their parents.
5. Frame 5Cultural grievance adds another lane, with party supporters more likely than nonsupporters to prefer tradition over social change.
6. Frame 6The next test is elections in France, Greece, Italy, Poland, Spain, and Sweden, plus whether strong-leader politics keeps pressing courts and parliaments.