This article moves beyond the pervasiveness of the concept of populism emphasising anti-elite sentiment to focus on the policy profile of populist parties. In doing so, it provides an understanding of how populism influences parties’ policy issue focus and what intermediates this relationship. Based on data from the Comparative Manifesto Project and the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the article reveals the significance and facilitators of policy salience and issue ownership of populist parties. The main argument is that these parties hold policy profiles that they have coherently built over the years by representing policy issues mobilising citizens and aggregating voters. In this sense, they should not merely be seen as anti-establishment actors manoeuvring party systems strategically but also as ideologically driven and policy-purposeful parties. Moreover, populist parties have led efforts in emphasising the most urgent policy issues dictated by crises, making them central to party competition and to their policy profile.
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