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The Rhetoric on Illegal Migration of Centre-right Parties and Right-wing Populist Parties in “Old” and “New” EU Member States: A Content Analysis of Leaders’ Speeches

The issue of illegal migration has divided the EU to its East and West. However, more recently the North-South division is visible as well. The issue of non-EU migration to Europe has become a quintessential issue in the public and political discourse, concurrently cloaking the issues of democratic reversals and backslides in some post- communist EU members. Hence rhetoric is a powerful means of persuasion, which has the power to influence people's attitudes, emotions and actions, we have analysed the rhetoric of selected leaders from several “Old” and “New” member EU member states from centre-right and right-wing populist parties and tried to find commonalities and differences. The aim of the rhetoric is to convince the interviewer and to encourage him to change his attitudes, use logical argumentation, put the listener in focus, and require the moral responsibility and sincerity of the speaker. Analysing the rhetoric of the leaders who hold the issue of migration very high in their agenda is performed through the analysis of leaders’ statements. Whilst the centre-right parties’ leaders’ rhetoric seems to differ depending on their country of origin and regional affiliations, the right-wing populists seem to speak with a more uniform voice.

illegal migration, the EU, rhetoric, centre-right parties, right-wing populism, content analysis

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