The Use of ‘History’ in Ethnonationalist Populist Rhetoric

ABSTRACT This paper aims to elucidate the nexus between the ethnonationalist approach to popular identity and populist rhetoric in Europe. It argues that the latter is used as an argumentative, performative and communicational tool to frame those views politically. The ethnonationalist politician defines the true people relying on their alleged ties to a constructed past, with quasi‐mythical features, regardless of any factual historical account. Exploring the role of history and its use becomes paramount to understanding the identity‐building process and the connection to how it is devised in the political arena. To that end, the paper first studies the concept of ‘the people’ and outlines populist rhetoric. Second, it shows the link between both to analyse how the former features in the ethnonationalist view. Third, ‘history’ and ethnonationalism are explored to see how they are linked with populism. Finally, the piece proposes three cases to view how this rhetoric works in practice and assesses the study's success in the concluding remarks.