In both cases, Trump and Söder use McDonald's and Döner as an electoral campaign tool, so pretty much as Salvini does. So there is a shift of style.

Plus, Söder on his IG has created his brand #söderisst and there is mostly Baverian/German food.

Oh great! Looking forward to read it.
Do you think that animals fall into this? Both Marine Le Pen and Matteo Salvini (before him, also Silvio Berlusconi) publish a huge amount of pictures with animals. Or it's only a mere electoral strategy?

Correct. SW is more the pop of his political style, and not really about food. He also dressed up as Shrek.
The Döner is actually interesting: part of the German culture & represents the "ordinary German" food. The video of him making the döner, looks almost like a copy of Trump at McDonald's.

7/ More considerations:

3. Can food become a "new" parallel cleavage together with rural/urban, local/global and ecology/energy, used in the populist rhetoric for construct "people" ?

4. Do we have other examples, besides Salvini, Söder and Bolsonaro (Farage?) ?

Thanks for making it until here.

6/ However, some considerations.

1. Why are we not studying this phenomenon more in depth? Spam papers if you know more ⬇️

2. Is it only a man style? MLP, for example, is quite focused on animals on her IG. Is then food another feature that distinguishes male/female politicians communication?

5/ Salvini postes food pictures & videos that criticise EU food/market rules/food policies. The meals are not just convivial, but they’re political statements that raise again the "us" vs "them" through an unstoppable crisis that sees the real Italians caged by the vegans dictatorship.

4/ Two "performative" styles:

2. Instrumental/campaigned used mostly by Salvini: staged food posts used to attack the EU (in paeticular food policies and what it's called "lab food"), promote nationalism (traditional celebrations food), and send clear political messages during elections.

3/ From this paper, I went through Salvini and Söder IG pages.

➡️ Two "performative" styles (roughly):

1. Localised/identity-based used mostly by Söder: beer, wurst, Bavarian traditions, roots the politician in local culture and masculine, folksy authenticity.

2/ In 2021 Demuru Paolo wrote a paper about Gastropopulism used by Savini and Bolsonaro.

➡️ Politicians use everyday food practices and images on SMS to perform being “one of us” and to draw a symbolic boundary between us (the people) and them (elites, foreigners, bureaucrats).

@leuffen.bsky.social @na-wehl.bsky.social @tobiastober.bsky.social @nilsweidmann.bsky.social @geraldschneider.bsky.social

This sentiment is also shared by more nationalist figures within the ruling party LDP, like Tomomi Inada, former Defence Minister, which openly denied the Nanjing massacre.

www.smh.com.au/world/china-...

When a party mixes nostalgia for a “strong Japan” with revisionist undertones, it’s not just a policy debate, it’s a warning sign.

The Sino-Japanese history problems have never been solved and faced. Mix this with an ongoing anti-chinese feeling and Sanseito, nothing good can come out of this.

In Japan’s polarised memory politics, wartime predations abroad aren’t just history, they shape the present. Denial of past atrocities risks more than diplomatic fallout: it can erode the democratic & pacifist ideals that define postwar Japan.

Recent survey: chinascope.org/archives/334...

(1) In the new In_equality magazine by @excinequality.bsky.social, we draw on original survey data from 9 countries to argue that public support for mutlilateral health policy is more robust than populists want to make you believe.
bsky.app/profile/exci...