Europe is facing a challenge to its democratic norms and values. Populism, nationalism and autocratic behaviour are on the rise; liberal democracy and the values of freedom, tolerance and the open society are under threat. For a long time, it was believed that these values were not only entrenched in EU countries, but with Europe’s help they would progressively dominate in the rest of the world as well. Instead, they are retreating even at home.

This is not a phenomenon that can conveniently be laid at the door of the eurozone crisis; it is broader, more complex, global in nature. Its roots are partly economic, a reaction to the displacement and insecurity due to globalization and automation. However, they are also cultural, reflecting fears of a loss of identity and of “losing control” in cosmopolitan societies.

The populist discourse feeds on these fears, anxieties and hardships. Rather than addressing the real causes, it tends to blame the euro, European institutions and bureaucracy, the “elites” and even more broadly the European project as a whole. The answer offered is protectionism, a retreat to the nation-state, closing borders and appealing to a vision of an idealized past that can never be recreated, if it ever existed in the first place. Yet the simplicity of this answer resonates with a part of the electorate, driving electoral fortunes and increasingly shaping the political debate.

How Europe (its people, institutions and policies) respond to this discourse will be critical for its future. It will not be easy – partly because Europe itself is seen as part of the problem, but also because addressing the grievances is an almost impossible task in practice. Populism is a reaction to real, not imaginary, problems, conveniently anchored in the narrative of a self-serving elite versus the man on the street. From migration to the impact of trade on jobs, populists ask some of the right questions. Unfortunately, they either have no answers or provide the wrong ones, couched in an oversimplification or misrepresentation of the facts – and, in the end, when they manage to exercise power, they make matters worse.