The nation of the people: An analysis of Podemos and Five Star Movement's discourse on the nation

This article empirically explores how populist actors talk about the nation. is a research area mostly tackled in studies on right-wing populism, with other forms of politics usually left out analysis. To fill this academic gap, we focus Spanish party Podemos and Italian Five Star Movement (M5S). The former paradigmatic example radical whereas latter commonly considered as catch-all no clear ideological connotation. Through discourse analysis leaders' speeches official public declarations, role that national identity plays strategies M5S type nation they discursively construct. Whilst Podemos' strategy purposely aims at contending to right ideologically loaded concepts signifiers construct an idea fitting party's leftist values, M5S's appropriating valence issues, such “Made Italy” brand concept “national interest”. Thus, our contributes clarify differences between political culture “post-ideological” one M5S, also reflected by survey data confirming strong “nationalist” attitudes their respective electorates.