Europe and the Front National Stance: Shifting the Blame
National Identity and Europe in Times of Crisis
ISBN: 978-1-78714-514-6, eISBN: 978-1-78714-513-9
Publication date: 10 August 2017
Abstract
This chapter focuses on the anti-European stance as it unfolds in Marine Le Pen’s and Jean-Marie Le Pen’s discourses. As most far-right parties in Europe, both politicians focus on the notion of freedom and national sovereignty, asserting a strong anti-European Union stance; however, they construct their anti-European momentum by playing on different strategies and emotions. By using corpus linguistics tools, the present study examines and analyses the discourse of both politicians in interviews and debates. It concludes that if they share most issues on which they base their political agenda such as the fear of increasing immigration because of the Schengen’s agreement, they differ as regards the ways they discursively address the same issue. Marine Le Pen relies more on a constructive/rational stance, by focusing on facts and figures as well as on solutions, while moving away from the strong and negative emotions which her father constantly used mainly as provocation strategies. This may have helped her build a favourable political momentum as witnessed in the 2014 European elections.
Keywords
Citation
Baider, F. and Constantinou, M. (2017), "Europe and the Front National Stance: Shifting the Blame", Karner, C. and Kopytowska, M. (Ed.) National Identity and Europe in Times of Crisis, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 113-135. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78714-513-920171006
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017 Emerald Publishing Limited