“Part of the Elite”? Anti-Austerity Populism and Trade Unionism in Italy and Spain

Abstract

A broad literature has analyzed the effects of Mediterranean welfare regimes on the political-electoral sphere and on the policy making process. Part of the literature on the insider-outsider divide has identified in the insiders the real core-constituency of the social democratic parties. The union movement, politically linked to the main left-of-center parties, would similarly show poor ability of representing the interests of the outsiders. Since the beginning of the Great Recession, new parties advancing a populist discourse have been able to attract vast segments of the leftist electorate. This article focuses on Podemos and the Five Star Movement and explores, mainly through in-depth interviews with political and union leaders, to which extent the critiques advanced by these parties towards the union organizations are motivated by the normative implications of the insider-outsider literature. The analysis shows that the critiques are more related with the ancillary role played by the unions towards their political referents than with their supposed “over-protection” of the insiders. However, it emerges that the stances assumed by the two parties towards unionism diverge, due to different ideological and “meta-political” roots: while Podemos can potentially develop a relationship of cooperation with trade unionism, the Five Star Movement positions itself as a competitor.