Polish Right-Wing Populism in the Era of Social Media: The Unexpected Careers of Paweł Kukiz and Janusz Korwin-Mikke

By employing the concepts of opportunity structure and discursive opportunities as a theoretical background, this paper aims to identify and analyze the factors that may have led to the breakthroughs of two right-wing political actors in Poland in 2014-2015: Paweł Kukiz and his Kukiz'15 movement and Janusz Korwin-Mikke and his political initiatives. In our study we focused on several issues: the political, economic, and social context; the visibility provided by traditional media; widespread usage of social media; correspondence of the content of messages to expectations and political preferences; and radicalization of the agenda of the Law and Justice party (PiS), which contributed to the resonance and legitimacy of populist claims.