Situating regional policies: how important are they in populist surge and political divides in Europe?

In this paper, we argue that understanding the role of regional policies and their outcomes on the recent populist disaffection of European voters with mainstream politics and their role in the political divides of Europe is far from complete and remains to be developed. This paper aims to make novel contributions to the existing literature on these two issues by introducing empirical research findings across 262 NUTS II-level regions of Europe. The findings, first, extend the dominating discourse that spotlights left-behindness as the main driver that spurs populist sentiments by demonstrating that support for radical parties is far more complex and is underpinned by spatially-blind, competitiveness-oriented policies. Second, the findings bring into the spotlight the tri-polar divide (mainstream, right and left-wing populist attitudes) in European politics and demonstrate that while the economic conditions, anxieties concerning immigration, and social circumstances that characterize the regions play a role to some extent, Europe's tri-polar political landscape is predominantly structured by the differential spatial effects of policies. We interpret these findings as a need for a meticulous analysis of the existing ones in building future policies against the surge of populism.