Populizam u Hrvatskoj između ideologije i političkoga stila: Temeljne odrednice predizborne retorike predsjedničkoga kandidata Ivana Vilibora Sinčića

In the last few years, the term populism has been frequently used in the Croatian public life, primarily with negative connotations. Unlike the countries with long democratic traditions, domestic research projects related to this topic are still in its infancy. Due to differences in research approaches, there is no universally accepted definition of this term. Consequently, populism is simultaneously considered a form of political style and ideology. Within this theoretical framework, this paper aims to determine the main features of the political rhetoric used by the presidential candidate Ivan Vilibor Sinčić, whom media often labelled as “populist” during the 2014/15 pre-election campaign. We analysed all the articles related to the presidential candidate Sinčić published by Jutarnji list and Večernji list newspapers during the pre-election campaign and three days after the elections (December 9th – December 12th 2014) as well as the rhetoric he used in the presidential election debates broadcast by three national TV stations during the period mentioned.