Populist politicians say they represent the people. But could they actually be a new form of the elite?
With the Berggruen Institute.
With the Berggruen Institute.
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00:00You're the real people, you're the people that built this nation.
00:03Remember, the people are our bosses.
00:06I am the candidate of the people's France!
00:12Populists like to claim they're on the side of the people,
00:15but in fact they're the epitome of the elite.
00:30Another fake news.
00:43Together we will drain the Washington swamp
00:46and we will clean up the corruption in our nation's capital.
00:50They look at this great, glittering, globalized economy
00:53and they see some people getting very rich indeed.
00:56The biggest duality that they're feeding us is the people versus the elite.
01:01I think populists have no problem with elitism so long,
01:05as long as they are the elite themselves.
01:17There is a populist elite that is trying to replace and get the power.
01:27We are very frustrated with the system,
01:30a system that feels like it doesn't work anymore.
01:33But the people who claim to bring us solutions, particularly populists,
01:37they are not the answer.
01:56We are not the answer.
02:16Because of a tweet, a retweet, an article you write,
02:19a poem you write, a novel you write,
02:21you might wake up and you might read papers calling you a traitor.
02:26DESTROY IT
02:27THEN EVENTUALLY
02:28DEFEND IT
02:29NOT LESS
02:32I am more than ready to take on the greed and corruption of the corporate world.
03:01I might be very critical of the populist elite, but at the same time I need to connect with
03:17the people who might have voted for them, so I can't stay in my own echo chamber.