From Wisconsin to Warsaw, voters around the world have been expressing their deep dissatisfaction with political elites. Yet establishment politicians have preferred to rely on a politically convenient narrative to explain away the populist explosion: Russian interference.
Russian meddling is a real and serious problem. Much more could be done to address it, from naming and punishing those responsible to improving trans-Atlantic efforts to combat it. But the obsession over Russia, sparked by Donald Trump’s 2016 victory, distracts attention from the real causes of populist anger.
Take Italy. Two euroskeptic movements, 5 Star and Northern League, made a strong showing in the general election earlier this month. The result proved vexing to some. “Italy joins long list of elections influenced by Russia,” tweeted Samantha Power, President Obama’s U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. “Sputnik will do what Sputnik does.”
What nonsense. There are plenty of plausible explanations for the result that don’t lead back to Vladimir Putin. Italy’s youth unemployment rate, the third highest in the European Union, stands at 31.5%. The last time Italy’s economic growth topped 2% was 2006. It has struggled to reach 1% since 2010. More than 150,000 African and Middle Eastern refugees landed on Italy’s shores in 2015 alone. Transparency International last year ranked Italy 54th in corruption perceptions. Namibia ranks higher.
Those factors alone ought to be enough to explain Italy’s populist turn, though populism is hardly a new phenomenon in postwar Italy. And Italy isn’t alone. Russian bots supposedly were behind the Brexit campaign, America’s #ReleaseTheMemo hashtag and the Catalan independence movement. That’s not to mention the credit Russia is given for all the racial tension in the U.S. and the political clashes that follow school shootings like the one last month in Parkland, Fla.
Russian interference, apparently, can do almost anything. It seems income stagnation, unbridled immigration, economic inequality, automation and the opioid crisis don’t influence voters as much as a few poorly paroduced memes.
The Russian interference narrative is bound to be a political loser. By acting as if voters are making choices out of false consciousness, establishment politicians only increase the distance between themselves and the people they are meant to serve. Elites don’t need to change the story; they need to offer concrete solutions to voters’ real problems.
In France, Emmanuel Macron managed to fend off a populist opponent who rode a wave of fake news peddled by Russian-backed hackers. He did it by offering French voters meaningful economic reforms and a narrative of change. Elites in other Western countries ought to do the same. They can begin by examining why so many of their cherished policies are being rejected by an increasing number of voters.