The European Court of Human Rights is conventionally portrayed as the guardian of a right-based liberal democracy. The historical role assigned the Court’s system as an ‘alarm bell’ against the return of totalitarianism prevails until today. Is the Court equally apt to prevent the rise of populism? In this lecture, I address this issue in three steps. First, I explain why populism poses a serious danger to deliberative and representative democracy. Second, I show that populists do not abolish institutions and rights, but distorts their functions, which makes populism difficult to detect at the supranational level. Third, I draw some implications for the Court’s role. I claim that an enhanced proportionality test could detect and counter the populist assault.