The Parliamentary Behavior of Populist Parties: The Spanish Case

This paper analyses the behaviour of the populist parties in the Spanish Parliament. This involved examining the type of initiatives submitted and the voting patterns in the chamber, as well as the themes in the agendas of two parties, Unidas Podemos and Vox , in the 12th and 14th parliamentary terms. The literature suggests that populist parties engage in defiant and uncooperative behaviour in institutions and proposed differentiated and concentrated parliamentary agendas. However, I argue that this behaviour can be nuanced by contextual, ideological and strategic factors. The analysis suggests that the Spanish populist parties reproduce and amplify pre-existing ideological and territorial divisions in the legislative institution, instead of introducing new logics of conflict (e.g., populism/anti-populism).