Populist parties raise important questions but offer terrible answers, a weakness others should exploit.

Populism is by no means a new phenomenon, but recent years have seen a clear rise in parties turning to a more authoritarian, populist strategy of winning over voters. Now, the populist movement has managed to establish a strong position in Europe, and although its popularity is not currently rising, it is not diminishing either.

This trend shows how ineffective the fight against populism is. Debating them often hands them victory, as they do not observe the same rules and norms their debating partners do. Instead, they create an “us versus them” mentality and say whatever is best for them and their political ends, whether it is true or not.

Ostracisation is another approach more centrist parties try against populists. This is a practice used in the European Parliament, which might forcefully stop populists from seizing powerful positions in the EU, yet it fails to reverse their popularity in member states.

Populists can create problems out of hitherto non-existent issues. A prime example of this is fear-mongering in the Hungarian media, the majority of which is heavily influenced by the populist governing party Fidesz. Hungarians are constantly barraged with disinformation telling them liberals want to change the gender of young children. The transgender debate might have been strong in other countries, but in Hungary, this was not a topic of public discussion, nor was there any real effort by any group to change the gender of children. Yet Fidesz made it seem like an urgent threat, which won a firm stronghold in the public psyche.

Having said that, not all topics raised by populists are bogus. Immigration is an issue which has to be dealt with, with long-term-policy solutions. Immigration is used as a threat by populism as it fits into the ‘us and them’ narrative. The same goes for the importance of families, to try to offset the dwindling birth rate.

The example of Hungary illustrates the situation perfectly. The government spent stellar amounts on propaganda, using its media machine to build up the threat of immigration and to exhibit how much the government cares about families.

The truth, however, is that despite what it reports, the government is failing to protect people against the presumed threat of migrants and helping criminals and spies gain access to EU countries through Hungary, all while releasing people smugglers from prison and not spending any less on family policies than other EU countries. Despite many loans for families not having a notable effect on birth rates, people close to the top of the government are entangled in child abuse cases.

This paradox is a systematic error in populist parties, which offer anti-establishment anti-elite narratives. Their track records show the solutions they provide for the problems they raised to the level of public debate are dismal.

Why is this not exposed? In Hungary, the government has overpowering control over the media, and for other parties or organizations it would take so much money, they do not have to be able to insert their own narratives, and topics into the public mind. But there are topics already occupying the public thanks to the propaganda media stuffed with taxpayer’s money.

Immigration and birth rates are topics of real concern, for which real solutions are needed, rather than the smoke and mirrors feel-good-but-no-actual-impact populist policies of Fidesz.

Others need to piggyback on the problems raised by populists and offer real attainable and effective solutions. In Hungary, so far, the opposition has failed to do this. They tried but did not succeed in raising their own topics, and to capitalise on others.

Yet there is a new party, called Tisza, headed by former Fidesz loyalists which not only criticizes the Hungarian PM, Orbán, but other opposition parties too. Maybe the newcomer will not shy away from learning from populists without being one and fulfilling the empty promises of populist parties with effective policies. This is crucial in resetting Hungary on the path towards a better-functioning democracy and for once, the country would be not an example of populist politics, but of how to counter them.

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