Théo Aiolfi

Right, even as a specialist, it's quite exhausting (and numbing) to follow the man these days...

Thank you Guy for engaging with my work and for this very kind review!

❇️ FirstView - 📖 Book Review

💬'...an original and valuable addition to the study of populism...’

Guy Gerba @ucc.ie reviews "The Populist Style: Trump, Le Pen and Performances of the Far Right" by @theoaiolfi.bsky.social

@edinburghup.bsky.social, 2025

👉 buff.ly/4F9RF8s

Monday 30 March, 3:30pm (Venue 16)
Italian Politics & Populism - Visuals in Populist and Reactionary
Politics
with Savvas Voutyras @anveneti.bsky.social Stamatis Poulakidakos @theoaiolfi.bsky.social @ngellwitzki.bsky.social Ethan Scanlon @dbonansinga.bsky.social

Thank you for the very kind words Giada!

Thank you Andreas, much appreciated!

Very proud to share this piece with
@bolandeira.bsky.social for @jacobinmag.bsky.social, where we discuss the complicated relationship between the radical left and the nation, based on our article in JCES (doi.org/10.1080/1478...).

The Problem With Left Nationalism Left populists across Europe have sometimes dampened their internationalism in an effort to reach broader audiences. This has produced little in the way of electoral success and often meant giving up a necessary fight against xenophobia.

Left populists across Europe have sometimes dampened their internationalism in an effort to reach broader audiences.

This has produced little in the way of electoral success and often meant giving up a necessary fight against xenophobia.

🎆 NEW OA ARTICLE ALERT 🎆

'Populism, visual technologies, and the self-mediation of ‘the people’ from the 2002 Venezuelan coup to the 2021 US Capitol riots' in @risjnl.bsky.social

How do populist publics visually represent themselves & how have shifts in visual technologies altered this process?

It was a genuine pleasure to host Claire in Dijon!

I feel very lucky to have the chance to meet so many talented colleagues whose research sheds a new light on research topics I thought I knew well.

Please check out her first open access if you are curious!

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

All the pleasure was mine Claire! Content que tu aies pu profiter de l'accueil (et des spécialités) de Bourgogne et c'était un plaisir de t'avoir parmi nous !

What an honour! Thank you for the kind words Andreína Victoria Hernández Ross.

"Aiolfi’s interdisciplinary method, blending political theory, critical analysis and performance studies, offers a sophisticated framework, equipping scholars with tools to analyse populism’s performative dimensions."

Je travaille maintenant à Dijon, mais je reste affilié à la VUB où je travaillais l'an passé. Et je garde beaucoup d'affection pour Bruxelles !

Si vous parlez anglais, ce petit extrait du livre de Sclafani vous montre un peu le genre d'analyse que les collègues sociolinguistes font sur lui :

static.routledge.com/978113824450...

Bien sûr, en termes de richesse lexicale et de sophistication de la langue, le constat est simple pour Trump. Mais au-delà de ces mesures linguistiques, il y a des choses à dire sur la façon dont il parle. Son usage du discours rapporté, son sens de la répartie, ses digressions métadiscursives,...

Merci beaucoup, c'était un plaisir !

C'est un beau compliment, merci ! Je le fais à ma modeste mesure, mais il y a nombre de spécialistes qui font l'exégèse très détaillée du discours de Trump.

Ma référence reste Jennifer Sclafani et son livre "Talking Donald Trump", qui va bien plus en profondeur que moi.

Last reminder 📢

Only three days left to submit your abstracts for our online symposium on the visual side of populism!

tinyurl.com/VisualPopuli...

Last chance to apply for our online symposium on Visual Populism. Deadline 31 July!

#cfp #populism #visual #mediastudies

New Publication of Thomás Zicman de Barros @bolandeira.bsky.social @cevipof.bsky.social with @theoaiolfi.bsky.social
cc @scpo-research.bsky.social

Kind reminder about the deadline at the end of July to submit abstracts for the online symposium "Visualising populist identities" on December 2nd and 3rd!

Call for Paper here: tinyurl.com/VisualPopuli...

Abstract submission there: tinyurl.com/VisualisingP...

From sovereignty to créolisation: populist strategies and the Mélenchon-Ruffin split. A response to Rojas-Andrés, Mazzolini, and Custodi This article contributes to current debates on left-wing populism in Europe by addressing the strategic tensions between patriotic discourse and so-called ‘identity’ agendas. It does so by examinin...

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Read the full article:
“From sovereignty to créolisation: populist strategies and the Mélenchon–Ruffin split.”
Out now in the Journal of Contemporary European Studies.

(Please do reach out to us if you face difficulties accessing it!)

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

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So, must left populism choose patriotism over “minority” struggles?
The French case suggests otherwise: créole populism—anti-racist and pluralist—proved more promising than the sovereigntist turn, both electorally and as a strategy for radical democracy.

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Créolisation names a different universalism—open, conflictual, grounded in difference.
It is not a boutique cultural gesture, but a "dirty", grassroots process that emerges from below and redefines who "the people" can be.

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Créolisation pictures the people not as a fixed identity but as a relation—open, unstable, shaped by intertwined histories and cultures.
It roots universalism in lived plural vulnerability, not abstract national sameness.

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Seeing those limits, Mélenchon shifted strategy.
Instead of wooing far-right voters, he mobilised subaltern precarious groups—especially racialised abstentionists—and grounded this move in Édouard Glissant’s concept of créolisation.

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In France, the sovereigntist gambit aimed to lure mob-leaning far-right voters into supporting the left. But it failed. The “faché pas facho” line proved to be a dead-end.
As @ericfassin.bsky.social notes, it misunderstands far-right loyalty and ends up reinforcing exclusion.

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We build a typology mapping three expressions of invisibilised masses (that can overlap):
(1) Subalterns – excluded by race, gender or status
(2) The precarious – atomised, insecure workers
(3) The mob – déclassé, fringed, resentful groups courted by the far-right

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To grasp this turn, remember that populism is not only about stylistic transgressions of charismatic leaders—it is about who is drawn onto the stage.

Its transgression lies in mobilising the invisibilised—sectors that are, in fact, very diverse, literally heterogeneous.

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Gradually, however, Mélenchon pivoted. He refocused on abstentionist, racialised, precarious voters in the banlieues, adopting an openly anti-racist, feminist, and queer-inclusive discourse.
It was not a strategic shift that happened smoothly, and he has been heavily criticised for this choice.