In the last years populist movements and parties across the EU have managed to use social networks increasingly as a platform for political communication and mobilization. This has allowed them to communicate directly with a steadily growing number of followers and distribute their political content to a mass audience.

Why are populists seemingly so successful in communicating their messages via social networks? In this paper, Paul-Jasper Dittrich, research fellow at the Jacques Delors Institute – Berlin, offers an interpretation of populism as a political communication strategy in Germany, Italy, France and Spain. The analysis shows that populists have managed to establish social networks as a communication and mobilization tool in all four countries.