They may be leftists or right-wing, but anti-establishment populists in Europe “share common ground in their core constituencies, rural voters,” says the New York Times. “Just as Donald J. Trump rolled up a big rural vote in his unexpected presidential victory, Europe’s populists are rising by tapping into discontent in the countryside and exploiting rural resentments against urban residents viewed as elites.”
On both sides of the Atlantic, the rising political movements target immigration, trade pacts and globalization while attacking the political and economic elite. The Times says “the rural-urban split has been telling in recent elections in Britain, Italy, France, Austria, Lithuania and elsewhere.” Rural citizens, who are usually older, poorer and less-educated than urbanites embrace the populist message that they are true protectors of their heritage and culture. They often feel mocked by city-dwellers or described as bigots for reluctance to embrace diversity.
“Residents of rural areas are perhaps the only social groups that we can still openly ridicule,” sociologist Jaroslaw Fils, of Jagiellonian University in Krakow, told the Times. In describing rural political attitudes, Fils said, “People who live in the countryside want the state to provide them with a sense of stability and predictability.”