My bet is that the recent stupid culling of wolves and lynxes in Nordic countries is also directly linked with appeasing people in rural communities for the next European elections. It will be an expensive mistake, as people will discover soon, but politicians are extremely concerned by the raise of the populist parties.
I think the suggestion is that the rise of populist parties is making the otherwise “responsible” politicians take more populist decisions to win back votes, especially before an election.
