Talk:Left-wing populism

How valid is this concept?
This article to me reeks of political slant. The concept of populism in political science is not very well defined and the inclusion of several parties that don't necessarily share much in common seems arbitrary and politically motivated. Politicians often like describing their oponents as populists but they are equally guilty of promising everything to everyone. I for one fail to see why Podemos in Spain is presumably populist whilt Partido Popular (which even has populism in its name!) is not. It seems to me that someone or someones have been going around in Wikipedia in the last few years adding "populism" to the list of ideologies of left and rightwing parties (as if centrist or supposedly centrist parties are never populist). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.69.52.84 (talk) 23:21, 23 March 2016 (UTC)
 * Agree, although populism is well-defined. There have been populist parties, such as the Populist Party in the U.S., and most parties will from time to time make populist appeals.  TFD (talk) 02:59, 24 March 2016 (UTC)

Orphaned references in Left-wing populism
I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of Left-wing populism's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "ideology": From People's Mujahedin of Iran:  From Anarchism:  

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT ⚡ 19:11, 20 April 2017 (UTC)

European left-wing populism
A few days ago I create a category about left-wing populism in Europe, but nobody check it. Can we finally confirmed that? Here's a link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Left-wing_populism_in_Europe 178.43.74.206 (talk) 15:12, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Hi IP, welcome to Wikipedia, please remember to sign your comments with four tildes (~). Simonm223 (talk) 14:11, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
 * It's done. By the way, can you confirmed that category? 178.43.74.206 (talk) 15:12, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
 * I am not sure exactly what you're asking for. I had a look at the category, and currently a lot of the entries in it are unsupported by WP:RS. I'd suggest it needs work. Simonm223 (talk) 15:28, 1 August 2019 (UTC)


 * I don't think it is a meaningful category. It's a term sometimes used to describe Left parties to draw an equivalency with right-wing populist parties. TFD (talk) 02:13, 15 September 2019 (UTC)

Canadian Populism / New Democratic Party
Should we add the New Democratic Party to the list of populist parties represented within national parliaments? The NDP while not explicitly populist, does have a lot of populist elements to it, and I feel that we have a blind spot in regards to Left-Wing populism, within Canada. Austin Jaax (talk) 1:02, 12 November 2020 (EST)


 * I don't think they do. Do you have any sources? TFD (talk) 18:47, 14 November 2020 (UTC)

I mean, there's nothing in the Constitution that establishes that it's a populist party. However the party does use populist rhetoric in it's platform, and campaign rhetoric (People vs elites, Bearer of the people, ect). Austin Jaax (talk) 10:46, 16 November 2020 (EST)


 * Most parties use populist rhetoric these days. In general they are saying the same thing as before but rephrased for broader appeal. Avi Lewis said, “Why go for something that you have to explain? What populism tells you is that there are simple truths about our economy that can be communicated with great power.” So they don't talk as much about capitalism, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. But I don't see sources saying that the NDP is a populist party. TFD (talk) 17:32, 16 November 2020 (UTC)

Lula a populist?
The article claim Lula de Silva is a "popular" leader. It provides no source for him being a populist and it seem to either conflate being popular with populist or imply that having social programs makes him populist. Dentren &#124; Talk 21:05, 30 March 2021 (UTC)

SMER (Slovakia)
The article states that Direction – Slovak Social Democracy is left-wing populist. However, the sources do not support this and I have not been able to find any that do. The party profiles itself as left-wing, but when it uses populist elements, it takes the form of national populism (anti-migration, anti-LGBT etc...). I have been able to find a source (thesis) that puts the party in the national populism category, but not any source that classifies it as left-wing populist. The fact that a party profiles itself as left-wing (in this case, social-democratic) does not necessarily mean that when it embraces populist elements, it is in the form of left-wing populism. (For example, Poland's Law and Justice party also promotes left-wing economic policies, but at the same time it is usually classified as right-wing populism because of the form its populism takes.) I have inserted the template "failed verification" and would like to suggest removing this political party from the list. --Unloosek (talk) 12:57, 11 July 2021 (UTC)

Nuevas Ideas
Why is Nuevas Ideas listed here? Their own page lists them as "Centre to center-right" So it's very strange that their listed here.

Right and left wing populist definition
Both the right wing and the left-wing populist page employ the same definition verbatim. Making the definition meaningless In any rational way.

“ Its rhetoric employs anti-elitist sentiments, opposition to the Establishment, and speaking to or for the "common people" 2600:1700:610:65E0:3454:D755:7678:9027 (talk) 22:34, 30 November 2022 (UTC)

List of left-wing populist political parties
I cannot help but notice that, in the case of several of the mentioned political parties (as well as some of the named individual politicians), the word 'populist' does in fact not appear once in their main article. Should these entries figure on the list then? RoaldVitus (talk) 09:03, 5 December 2022 (UTC)

Bias in the article
The article says 'Unlike exclusionary or right-wing populism, left-wing populist parties tend to claim to be supportive of minority rights". Is this not unfair bias?

Would it not be more accurate, and less biased, to say, rather" "Unlike exclusionary or right-wing populism, left-wing populist parties are supportive of minority rights"?

Saying the 'claim to be' carries the implication that they are not genuine in supporting minority rights. Is there any evidence that their concern for minority rights is not genuine?

Fustbariclation (talk) 15:57, 25 October 2023 (UTC)


 * ✅, thanks for catching this @Fustbariclation! –Vipz (talk) 01:17, 26 October 2023 (UTC)