An explosive video first published by German media on May 17 has triggered a political earthquake in Austria.

In the secretly filmed video, the Freedom Party (FPÖ) politician Heinz-Christian Strache, who was the leader of the party and also Austrian vice-chancellor, promised public contracts to a woman who claimed to be the niece of a Russian oligarch in exchange for financial and electoral support.

Many believe the video's release, two years after it was recorded, was meant to deal a heavy blow to the right-wing Austrian politician.

And it did. Within 24 hours of the video's release, Strache announced his resignation from all his posts. The next day, Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz, leader of the center-right People's Party (ÖVP) ended the party's coalition with the FPÖ in the government and called a snap election in early September.

More importantly, the event is not only extraordinary in the context of Austria, which saw the controversial coalition formed merely 18 months ago. It is made all the more significant by the looming European elections that are scheduled to take place from May 23 to 26.

In the lead up to the elections, media coverage has featured the "worrying" trend of the rising right-wing politicians and political parties, all rallying for political support across Europe, such as France's Marine Le Pen, Italy's Matteo Salvini, Germany's AfD, so on and so forth. Media reports seem to suggest that after the election, the political balance could be tipped further to the right side of the political spectrum.

However, now with the far-right Austrian leader being exposed as fundamentally corrupt and even "treasonous" (in a mostly anti-Russia environment), will that erode public confidence in such populist politicians and thereby reverse the populist trend in Europe?

Undoubtedly, the video has done tremendous damage to the reputation of Strache and his party, which largely thrive on their anti-immigration pledges.

However, this single event may still prove hard to bring down the entire class of populist politicians in Europe and is not likely to disrupt the rising populism there, either.

Populism in Europe is not a 21st-century phenomenon but has nevertheless become an increasingly prominent feature of Europe's political landscape since the turn of the century, especially following the financial crisis in 2008 and the 2015 refugee crisis.

The concept of populism typically entails two opposing forces: in Dutch political scientist Cas Mudde's words, "the corrupt elite" and "the pure people." Even though the term "people" is relatively vague, the term "populism," essentially, speaks to an anti-party, anti-elite and anti-establishment sentiment among "ordinary people."

There has not been one single agreed-upon cause for populism in Europe. Instead, several factors, such as economic distress, the immigration crisis, threats to "cultural integrity" as well as national security, have given rise to the phenomenon. A study conducted by the Pew Research Center suggests that people with populist views demonstrate deep dissatisfaction with traditional institutions, the economic situation and mass immigration.

The rise of populism in Europe demonstrates an open revolt against the establishment and elites who have not addressed ordinary people' concerns.

In Germany, the surprising election results in 2017 saw the Alternative for Germany (AfD) winning 12.6 percent of the vote and entering the parliament as the third-largest group. One of the party's central appeals to voters was their opposition to Angle Merkel's support for bailing out indebted European countries like Greece. The party also vehemently opposes Merkel's policy towards refugees that saw more than 1.5 million migrants arriving in Germany since 2015, which was believed by many to increase the risk of terrorism.

Similar popular discontent with traditional parties and political elites were felt by voters in UK's 2016 Brexit referendum. Many voters had long harbored grievances against traditional politicians who they felt failed to tackle the problems of increasing economic inequality and the influx of migrants from Eastern Europe, said Zhang Bei, assistant research fellow at the Department of European Studies, China Institute of International Studies.

Apart from these populist phenomena in Germany and the UK, the increasing prominence of the Five Star Movement in Italy and growing populist voices in traditionally liberal Scandinavia are just some other examples as well as a continuation of a historic trend that saw populist movement gaining momentum in Europe.

According to a Guardian research, the last two decades saw support for populist parties surge from 7 percent to 25 percent and their leaders being elected into governments in 11 European countries.

The single scandal of Austria's Strache can hardly make a dent in changing that reality. It may have raised serious questions among many over the integrity of certain populist politicians but cannot all of a sudden dispel the rage felt by common people who have clearly been affected by real issues ranging from immigration, national security and economic hardships, so on and forth.

Therefore, people who celebrate Strache's video and hope it could spell the end for populism in Europe, may need to think harder about understanding the voters' genuine concerns and addressing public discontent by taking real action to improve the situation for them rather than relying on exposing populist politicians' shady behavior.