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Article published In:
Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 21:3 (2022) ► pp.484–504

The rise of the new Polish far-right

An analysis of Grzegorz Braun’s discursive strategies

ORCID logo | University of Warsaw

While much research has been done regarding right-wing discourse in modern Europe, the literature of Polish far-right discourse is still insufficient. The present paper discusses the discursive strategies of Grzegorz Braun, one of the leaders of Confederation Liberty and Independence, which were implemented by the politician during the 2019 Gdańsk mayoral campaign. In order to provide a comprehensive analysis of Braun’s discourse, audiovisual materials were included in the study. The findings show that Braun employs positive presentation of the Catholic Church and himself, and negative presentation of his opponents (LGBT activists, immigrants, the European Union, the elites), whom Braun considers to be in an alliance against Poland and its core values under the name of the “Gdańsk Pact”.

Keywords: Confederation Liberty and Independence, Grzegorz Braun, legitimation, multimodal discourse analysis, right-wing discourse
Article outline
  • 1.Modern right-wing discourse in Europe and Poland
  • 2.Grzegorz Braun and his activity on the Polish political scene
  • 3.Discourse historical approach
  • 4.Multimodal discourse analysis
  • 5.Dataset
  • 6.Analysis of the materials
    • 6.1Grzegorz Braun’s ad
      • 6.1.1Multimodal resources
        • Modal hierarchy and affordances
        • Cultural contexts
        • Contextual demands and temporal features
      • 6.1.2Pragma-strategic level
        • General strategy
        • Macro-speech act
        • Topic selection
        • Supporting internal coherence
        • Foregrounding/backgrounding
        • Deixis
        • Rhetorical features
        • Emotional coercion
      • 6.1.3Justificatory schema
      • 6.1.4Legitimation as a quality
      • 6.1.5Legitimation as a process
      • 6.1.6Discourse-historical moral evaluation
    • 6.2The Gdańsk Pact bulletin and the interview with Grzegorz Braun
      • 6.2.1LGBT activists
      • 6.2.2Immigrants and refugees
      • 6.2.3The Gdańsk Pact and the elites
  • 7.Conclusions
  • References
Published online: 13 October 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.20063.kos
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