“It is in the nation-state that democracy resides”
How the populist radical right discursively manipulates the concept of democracy in the EU parliamentary elections
Alexander Alekseev | National Research University Higher School of Economics | Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences
This article explores how the concept of democracy is constructed, conveyed, and instrumentalised in the
discourses of the populist radical right in the current EU context. The comparative analysis of the speeches of the leaders of two
dissimilar PRR parties in government (Polish Prawo i Sprawiedliwość) and in opposition (French Rassemblement
National) in the run-up to the 2019 European elections using tools of the discourse-historical and discourse-conceptual
approaches to CDS highlights the common core of PRR interpretations of democracy, influenced by the shared axiological, institutional, and
discursive framework of the EU. It shows that in the EU the PRR constructs the concept of democracy as an ideological complex, by diluting
its essentially populist interpretation of democracy with liberal democratic elements. Only by advancing
nativist and authoritarian interpretations of the people, does the PRR bring the concept of democracy in
line with its ideological core of nativism, authoritarianism, and populism.
Keywords: populist radical right, populism; democracy, radical right, liberal democracy, political discourse, European Union, European elections
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Theoretical framework
- 3.Methods
- 4.Data
- 5. Democracy in the interpretation of the Prawo i Sprawiedliwość
- 6. Democracy in the interpretation of the Rassemblement National
- 7.Discussion
- 8.Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
-
References
Published online: 29 September 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.20022.ale
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.20022.ale
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