The rhetoric of the immigration discourse of far-right parties in Spain and France

Abstract

Political discourse has been researched from different perspectives which have highlighted the ultimate persuasive purpose of political communication, ranging from rhetorical approaches to Critical Discourse Analysis. While the classical rhetorical approach claims that the construction of political discourse relies on three modes of argumentation, namely logos (communicating and explaining policy), ethos (establishing politicians’ integrity) and pathos (emotional appeals), Critical Discourse Analysis posits discourse as a form of social practice. Working within a theoretical framework which integrates the tenets of Critical Discourse Analysis into the classical rhetorical approach, this chapter seeks to explore the way immigration discourse is built by right-wing parties in Europe. The study, based on a corpus of public discourse fragments produced by Santiago Abascal, leader of the Spanish right-wing party Vox, and Marine Le Pen, leader of the French right-wing party Rassemblement National, pursues three aims: (1) to analyse the constructive and dismantling strategies employed in the far-right immigration discourse; (2) to show how such strategies pertain to the logos, ethos or pathos; and (3) to examine the similarities and differences between Vox’s and Rassemblement National’s immigration views as exemplified in their leaders’ discourse.