Support for Populist Parties and Climate Change Attitudes: Evidence from Six Countries in the Aftermath of the 2024 European Elections
Published in Conspiracism and Political Conflict, Palgrave Macmillan, 2026
Recommended citation: Biancalana, C., Mancosu, M., Ladini, R., & Bertero, A. (2026). Support for Populist Parties and Climate Change Attitudes: Evidence from Six Countries in the Aftermath of the 2024 European Elections. In M. Caiani, M. Solinas, & H.-J. Trenz (Eds.), Conspiracism and Political Conflict (pp. 131–155). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-13933-7_7 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-13933-7_7
Using original post-electoral survey data from approximately 15,000 respondents in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and Sweden, we examine how support for populist parties relates to two dimensions of climate-change attitudes: concern about climate change and acceptance of its predominantly human causes.
Populist-party voters are, on average, less concerned about climate change and less likely to attribute it mainly to human activity than mainstream-party voters. These differences are driven primarily by supporters of right-wing populist parties; voters of left-wing populist parties generally do not differ substantially from mainstream voters. The size and consistency of these associations vary across countries, showing that the relationship between populist support and climate attitudes depends on parties’ ideological orientation and national political context.