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The Documentary: The Populist Curtain: The Populist Curtain: Austria and Italy

Sebastian Kurz and Heinz Christian Strache

08/05/2019 GMT

The Populist Curtain: Austria and Italy

The Populist Curtain

BBC World Service - The Documentary, The Populist Curtain, The Populist Curtain: Austria and Italy

The coalition of centre-right and far-right parties that are running Austria and Italy

Political scientist Yascha Mounk travels through countries which were on the West of the former Iron Curtain. Graz in Austria is the birthplace of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Here, populists have been brought into the fold – with the coalition between the centre-right Austrian People's Party and the far-right Freedom Party of Austria running the country. But Graz subverts expectations as the Communist Party is locally strong here too. His journey ends in the Italian city of Trieste, which was a contested city after both World War One and World War Two. Here Italy’s peculiar coalition between the Five Star and Lega parties is accused of attacking minorities and immigrants. Will Italy’s numerous smaller opposition parties manage to unite against the coalition?

(Photo: Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (L) of the conservative People's Party (OeVP) and vice-chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache of the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe). Credit: Getty Images)

The Documentary: The Populist Curtain

Meeting the populists governing European nations along the Iron Curtain’s route.

In 1946, Winston Churchill coined a memorable phrase: “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the continent,” he said. Today the Soviet Union has gone, but populist parties are in government in every country along the route of the Iron Curtain, as defined by Churchill. In this series, political scientist Yascha Mounk travels that route, and finds out what is changing under these new governments in smaller cities, far away from the capitals. He speaks to supporters and opponents of the populist parties and builds up a complex picture of Europe in a time of flux.

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