Re-narrating Europe in the Face of Populism: An Analysis of the Anti-immigration Discourse of Populist Party Leaders.

• Author: Akbaba, Sertan
• Position: ARTICLE - Essay

Introduction

In a recent article, Rogers Brubaker, a well-known scholar of nationalism studies, poses the question, 'why is civilization replacing the nation?' The scope of this study is not to answer this question, but the inquiry remains valuable in an era of 'Europe for Europeans' rhetoric led by the populist parties in Europe. The rising tide of populism brings us to focus on this "civilizationism." (1) In 2011, Anders Breivik killed out people by detonating a van bomb in Oslo, then shot 69 participants to death in a Worker's Youth League summer camp. While defending himself in court, he argued that his intention in carrying out this terrorist attack was to "save Norway and Western Europe from cultural Marxism and a Muslim takeover." (2) The incident was a turning point, not just for Norway but for Europe in exposing how the continent is divided between the nativists and the liberals. It is clear that this incident was a cry out of the already existing crisis of identity re-construction, already declared by Angela Merkel as a 'failure of multiculturalism back in 2010. Helmut Kohl criticized his successor in 2011, saying, "[Angela Merkel] is destroying my Europe." (3) Although Kohl and Merkel belonged to the same political camp, as a former chancellor and party leader, Kohl criticized Merkel for her open-door policy toward refugee immigration. While Merkel saw herself as rescuing Europe from a worker shortage, Kohl viewed her policies as destructive. Today's Europe continues to confront these competing narratives against an unprecedently hostile backdrop of fears of terrorist threats, from both Islamist fundamentalists and far right extremists.

The narrative of the nation remains deficient, leading to more dismantling rather than creating unifying positions, and this is the departing point of populist parties who are all re-writing a story for the sake of defending their homeland, namely Europe. This is a result of the positioning of the nation-state in Europe, which is experiencing a crisis of legitimacy due to the European integration. Post-war Europe is grappling with two important narratives, which are in opposition to each other. The reconciliatory peacetime narrative has started fading, and in the ensuing crisis of identification, "fear has emerged as a framework for developing identities and for engaging in social life." (4) Up to the 1990s, thanks to the prevalence of centrist politics, migration was welcomed, and treated as a necessity rather than a problem. This led to an opportunity for the populist parties to develop the issue of migration upon identity politics. Their main theme evolved into protecting European culture from the aliens. Starting with the mid-1990s, right wing leaders garnered fear among the masses, citing a deep decay in the system alongside warnings of threat and aggression from 'outsiders,' feeding populist concerns across economic, social and cultural realms. Currently, the re-narration of European identity is mostly dominated by the anti-immigration discourse. Consequently, this study discusses the populist narrative through examples of the anti-immigration discourse of selected political party leaders in Europe.

According to Muller "populism is always a form of identity politics;" (5) this study endeavors to understand how this growing populism--for some neo-populism--(6) is constructing a European-wide narrative for the current era. Populist politics are gaining support in a great number of nation-states in Europe. A common language shared by right wing populist parties across Europe is emerging, and, it is this language--with its uniform style, slogans of hatred, anti-plural behavior--that is creating a European narrative, grasping north and south, east and west of Europe. The current study evaluates this language with a case study of the Party for Freedom (the Netherlands), the Northern League (Italy), Fidesz (Hungary), and True Finns (Finland). The discourse is analyzed under three similar features, which these above-mentioned parties share. Firstly, the way they institutionalize the rhetoric of good and evil, a process Ruth Wodak terms mythopoesis. (7) Secondly, how they mirror one another via cross-referencing as well as discourse borrowing; and, thirdly how they mobilize the masses by bringing a new dimension to body politics, namely a European-wide policy of hatred. The focus of the paper is to evaluate to what extent a pan-European narrative is displayed by the populists, across the continent as a whole. For this reason, the parties are selected from different regions of Europe, each carrying the potential to represent the west, east, north and south of Europe. It is clear that populist parties have their own motives and do differ when compared, but apart from their own political goals, they share a common understanding in their storytelling. For Missiroli this is a "scaremongering rhetoric" (8) penetrating directly to the imagination of the masses. They also share a way of telling and selling their stories abroad, in a range not limited to their beloved nation, marking an unlikely intersection of supranational or 'civilizational' interests with parochial protectionism.

The study firstly discusses the concept of populism and the way it is acknowledged in the literature as well as in politics. Then populism is handled via a European context, as it differs greatly from North and South American experiences, in that it is mostly dominated by the migration issue. In the final section, an analysis of selected party leaders' discourse is given, to understand how individual party leaders are successful in rallying this political atmosphere towards a new European narrative.

Understanding Populism

Populism is a concept difficult to define and it varies with depth across the literature on whether it is a "thin centered ideology," (9) "a form of political mobilization," (10) or "a discursive style." (11) However, there are common political attitudes on which populism flourishes. Speaking for Europe, it is related with the traditional politics put forth by the right wing when stressing the defense of identity, tradition, culture, etc. For instance Betz argues that populism is "the mobilization of resentment" (12) and that this resentment is directed firstly towards established political parties and, secondly towards immigrants, foreigners and refugees. It is obvious that, in general, populist politics can rely on either left or rightist positions, and concerns itself with the people's welfare and interests. Populism, in Europe today is primarily fed by traditionalist far right parties that articulate cultural concerns about the erosion of their national identities, which brings the issue to migration.

The omnipresence of populism across Europe has received great attention and an academic literature on populism is emerging. The main reason behind this populist wave has to do with the conditions of modern societies which are becoming more and more heterogeneous, making it hard to address as well as to absorb diverse social demands. According to Laclau this "non-overlapping between the community as a totality" (13) opens up more room for populist politics. Although very prominent across the political spectrum, the concept of populism still begs a clear understanding. Besides being a contested concept, there are a diversity of populisms emphasized by a vast number of scholars, among them "national populism," (14) "neo-liberal populism," (15) "thin populism," (16) or "right wing populism." (17) In a generally accepted definition, populism refers to "a society to be ultimately separated into two homogeneous and antagonistic groups, 'the pure people vs. the corrupt elite,' and which argues that politics should be an expression of the general will of the people." (18) This definition focuses mainly on vertical exclusion (i.e. class difference), omitting another debate, which is the horizontal one. In today's European nation-state system, as a result of migration, the populism seen is mostly an antagonism between the people and the dangerous other, i.e. horizontal exclusion. (19) It is important to emphasize that this exclusion clearly exceeds the boundary of the nation in Europe. In the populist view, the people are acknowledged as a corporate body with a continuous existence, having a common interest and will. Any factor affecting this common will, is ascribed to be the enemy within.' For Canovan, this is about the three appeals to the people in populist discourse: the "united people" references the nation and is integrative; the appeal of "our people" differentiate our people from the foreigner, which is divisive; and appeals to the "ordinary people" pit them against the privileged and highly educated elite. As the study tackles the anti-migration discourse of the populist parties, the focus will be on the "our people" appeal, embedded in a European context by the populist discourse. The populist parties embrace this discourse of otherness, which is currently on the rise in Europe. The critiques made by these parties firstly dismantle the socially cohesive society in the nation-state, upon the grounds of who belongs to the nation and who does not via co-nationals, and secondly creating a common sense across Europe, opening up a debate on co-inhabitants, where a creation of a transnational meta-narrative emerges. The understanding of 'the people' in right wing populist leaders' discourse mostly includes their fellow Europeans.

Populism here is handled as a political strategy and a political style. (20) It is evaluated as a political communication that functions by simplifying the political space with direct and ordinary language. The right wing populist leaders speak very harshly and, at certain times, even become subjects of trials (e.g. leader of Front National Marine Le Pen, leader of Party for Freedom Geert Wilders). Although faced with trials on accusations of...