This paper examines the various uses of direct verbal quote forms in follow-up utterances of MPs during the parliamentary debates after the inaugural speech of a new chancellor in the Austrian parliament. Though direct quotations do not arise often, this form of discourse representation merits notice because chiefly opposition MPs use them, and because of their various semiotic facets which are foregrounded in the examined recontextualization practices. These practices end in MPs’ varied public self-positionings as to their role of ‘being an opposition MP’, viz., either as policy-oriented arguers or as ironic evaluators.