The new urban backlash: the narrative of motorist populist movements in Estonia, Poland, and Ukraine

This article describes the phenomenon of urban populism using the example of motorist backlash movements, which in their declarations struggle to defend the rights of drivers, while in practice they try to block the introduction of any restrictions on individual motorization. These movements are becoming a significant actor in contemporary urban policymaking, serving as an example of the global populist turn. Motorist populists employ tactics and narratives akin to those used by their municipalist counterparts, i.e. organizations that employ the right-to-the-city framework. Drawing on a content analysis of in-depth interviews with activists from Tallinn (Estonia), Warsaw (Poland), Lviv and Kyiv (Ukraine), this article investigates one specific layer of the still‐understudied populist turn in urban policymaking. It appears that two basic types of motorist populist narrative can be distinguished, both aiming to influence broader electoral platforms as well as superficially technocratic policymaking.