Populism in Europe and the Arab World: Questions Between Two Banks

In four sessions to add to the opening and closing sessions, the “Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Paris” recently held its third annual conference under the title “Populism in Europe and the Arab World: Comparative Approaches “. The conference was held remotely using video dialogue techniques, with the participation of thinkers and researchers from France and Arab countries.

The opening session took the form of a dialogue on the theme of “populism and its transformations”, attended by the director general of the “Arab Center” in Doha, the Arab thinker Azmi Bishara, Bertrand Badi ‘of the ‘”Institut du politique Sciences” in Paris, and Pierre Rosanvalon from the “Collège de France”, while Henri Lawrence, Chair of Contemporary Studies of the Middle East at the Collège de France, presented, in the closing session, a panorama historical background in which he shed light on the question of populism and the concept’s roots from Greek philosophy to today.

During the first session, the speakers addressed the theme “The forms of populism and its actors in Europe and the Arab world: the current state”. Where a professor of political sociology, Federico Tarragona, gave an introduction to populism, explaining some conceptual distinctions, while sociologist and diplomat, Gorvan Lopra, discussed how diplomacy deals with authoritarian populism in Europe and around the world Arab, and jurist Abdullah Saif underlined the populism of governments in southern Mediterranean countries.

Participants in the second session, titled “Populism, Revolutions and Counter-Revolutions”, reviewed Arab models of populism; Where Claire Bougran from the “National Center for Scientific Research” in France shed light on the concept with its applications from the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait. The Tunisian sociologist, Mahdi Mabrouk, addressed the question of populism in his country, while the researcher devoted himself to the “National Center for Scientific Research” in France Matteo Ray, his intervention to speak about authoritarian populism in Syria in the face of the popular protests.

The third session dealt with the issue of populism and the nation-state crisis, where the head of the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Abd al-Wahhab al-Afandi, presented an article in which he asked if populism is a war on the mind, while Doha ‘Arab Center’ researcher Mohamed Hamchi spoke of foreign policy populism. Researcher Tariq Kahlawi addressed populism and the issue of democracy in Tunisia.

Under the title “The question of populism in the media”, the fourth session was held during which the executive director of the “Arab Center” in Doha, researcher Muhammad Al-Masry, reviewed the question of populism. and public opinion through a reading in the Arab World Public Opinion Poll, and French journalist Alain Gresh was enlightened., On the growing populist discourse in French media, while researchers Nabila Bouchaala and Issa Mrah presented an article on “Populism in the Treatment of Algerian Media Movement.”