Pope warns against Hitler-like leaders coming to power on wave of populism

Pope Francis warned against populist leaders, saying that Germany came to elect one in 1933, and ended up with Adolf Hitler as its dictator.

“Crises provoke fear, alarm. In my opinion, the most common example of European populism is Germany in 1933… A people that was immersed in a crisis, that looked for its identity until this charismatic leader came and promised to give their identity back, and he gave them a distorted identity, and we all know what happened,” he said in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais.

“Hitler did not steal power,” the Pope said. “He was elected by his people and then he destroyed his people.”

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