Time has come for fresh thinking on ‘populism’

This week’s contribution to the contagion of populism comes from Austria, whose government has refused to sign up to the newly drafted UN Global Compact for Migration, the aim of which is to better manage legal population flows, as the number of people on the move, fleeing persecution or poverty, increases.

Vienna’s “nein” follows similar rejections of the UN plan by Hungary, Poland, and the US, where President Donald Trump says he will march up to 15,000 troops to the Mexican border as a shield against the caravan of migrants on their long march north from Central America. His call to arms surprised and alarmed the Pentagon, which has a somewhat smaller force in Afghanistan. For Mr Trump, needs must: The US elects a new Congress on Tuesday, and Republicans risk losing their thin majority in the lower house. Mr Trump’s concrete wall on the border has yet to be built so, he says, “We have to have a wall of people.”