From Brexit to VOX: Populist Policy Narratives about Rurality in Europe and the Populist Challenges for the Rural‐Urban Divide*

Abstract

The spread of radical‐right populist movements across Europe in recent years have been explained from a geographical perspective by a differentiated political behavior in rural areas, rooted in socio‐economic differences and a theory of a “revenge of the places that do not matter”. The objective of the article is to contribute to the characterization of the current populist narratives on rurality and potential new rural‐urban cleavages. Using the “Narrative Policy Framework”, the article explores two complementary case studies through a qualitative analysis of media pieces. The first case study explores narratives on rurality across the European Union between 2015 and 2019, giving an overview of how rural areas are depicted in policy narratives and the role and potential for discourses rooted in perceptions of “left‐behind places.” The second case study explores in depth how the Spanish radical‐right party VOX articulates its policy narrative on rurality. The analysis of both cases illustrates the existence of a complex narrative fabric on rurality across rural areas in Europe and how radical‐right populism reproduces a narrow concept of rurality, anchored in the idea of abandonment that may be contributing to the creation of a new rural‐urban cleavage.