Populism in Turkey and France: nativism, multiculturalism and Euroskepticism

Abstract

Based on the findings of fieldwork conducted in the spring of 2017 with the supporters of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Istanbul and the supporters of the National Front (FN) in Toulon and other French cities, this article aims to compare the ways in which both groups highlight nativist, anti-multiculturalist and Eurosceptic positionalities. Having a republican and laicist legacy, both states have similar paths in terms of state-building processes. There is also another similarity in both countries regarding the ways in which both right-wing populist parties have capitalized on socio-economic and nostalgic deprivations of various societal groups who are exposed to the detrimental effects of global flows. The main premise of the article is that both parties contribute to the rise of civilizationist rhetoric by culturalizing what is social, economic and political in origin. It will be argued that it is not only social-economic deprivation that make some people attracted to populist rhetoric, but also nostalgic deprivation, which prompts them to try to find remedies to cure the feeling of loss resulting from the disappearance of established notions of nation, identity, culture and heritage in the age of globalism.