Fake News, Economic Ideologies and the Rise of Anti-Euro Parties

During the 2010s, the international economic crisis and the rise of populism changed politics and electoral competition in the EU member states. These changes advanced with the politicization of new issues, and this was the case with European monetary integration and the euro. So, alternative economics (or populist economic ideology) was promoted for supporting populist policy proposals. This chapter suggests distinguishing between “fake news” and “fake economics” when studying populism. While fake news usually deals with a specific event or persons, “fake economics” is much more complex because it attempts to create a (looks like) coherent network of fake news or misleading economic analysis. This makes the specific case of anti-euro parties and the construction of their economic ideologies crucial to study the complexity of populism diffusion in the 2010s.