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Margaret Thatcher and Her Bruges Speech from 1988 Cultural and Linguistic Communication THE LANGUAGE OF EUROSCEPTICISM: STUDY CASE – MARGARET THATCHER AND HER BRUGES SPEECH FROM 1988 Lucian BĂLĂNUŢĂ1 PhD student, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University, Iaşi, Romania Corresponding author: Lucian Bălănuţă; e-mail: [email protected] Abstract Reviewing the main scientific literature, the Distrust regarding the European Union’s policies seeks current research highlights the central coordinates a British legacy, raised upon an imperial and insular of Euroscepticism based on the analysis of a history and a consequent devised political factor inside the particular political speech and context in order country. The intensity of the dilemma marks various rejections of integration projects and policies inside a to illustrate the paradigms in which it can be European frame. Before the referendum on the UK's referred. ULTAN & ORNEK (2015) argue that membership of the European Union held in 2016, a series Euroscepticism can be identified when a political of reformist critiques were addressed in the public sphere, actor is using a discursive formation of arguments reaching a wide range of Eurosceptic dimensions. The phenomenon has been employed in various public in order to reject the European Union’s policies. speeches, first of all as a feature of the mainstream political HARMEN & SPIERING (2004) consider landscape. The first articulated struggles towards the Euroscepticism a distinctively English European Economic Community (EEC) were manifested in the 1980’s, during Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s phenomenon, integrating terms such as terms. The aim of this paper is to point out a comprehensive “awkwardness” or “otherness” which are the understanding of Thatcher’s Eurosceptic legacy through basis of the narrative against European an analysis of the language she used when she delivered integration. Having an authentic British birth her famous 1988 Bruges speech about the future of Europe. Keywords: United Kingdom, Euroscepticism, narrative, certificate, the term Euroscepticism along with language. its lexical family began to borrow from the connotations and specificities of the political discourse inside the United Kingdom. FORTSTER 1. INTRODUCTION AND CONCEPTUAL (2002) admits that this term should be used under FRAMEWORK the umbrella of a school of sceptical thought that analyses different levels of British political CHILTON (2004) argues that language and approaches towards supranational European politics are intimately linked at a fundamental integration. Moreover, in an attempt to identify level. Using a particular type of language, the emergence of the concept of Euroscepticism, whether for written or oral purpose, within it can be said that one of the first evocation was overtly political contexts, it has to be viewed and noted in a journalistic article written for the understood as a phenomenon. Shaping that British press during the 1980’s, as HARMEN & language is a feature of the political leader’s SPIERING (2004) note. culture of beliefs and personality. Moreover, Back then it was a tendency to use the term depending on the extent this instrument is being “euro-sceptic”, alternatively to the “anti- used, it can formulate domestic or foreign affair marketeer”, in the context of that precise political agendas which define the parties. A qualitative climate, bringing public attention to a whole analysis on political speeches delivered in a process of discussion and deliberation agreement particular context is equally important to on the Single European Act (1986), a major understanding parties as organized actors in the revision of the 1957 Treaty of Rome, which had political arena. the main objective of establishing a single International Journal of Communication Research 199 Lucian BĂLĂNUŢĂ European market. The reforms introduced by the shifted gradually towards a greater centralization Single European Act have mainly shaped the of European policies and politics and the effects institutions of the European Community. As the on the country, as TOPALOFF (2012) remarks. In qualified majority vote was extended, increased essence, analysing Euroscepticism is possible powers were also given to the European only for member states of the particular European Parliament and the Commission. At that time, project; no matter how was it called throughout achieving a single market was an eminently history, because you cannot oppose the direction economic desideratum, and its political character a political bloc is heading without being part of was placed in a second plan, although Member that community. States eventually had to give up sovereigns in In 1975 British voters had backed the UK's order to achieve the commercial facilities. This is continued membership of the EEC by a large an important point of analysis for the broader of majority in the country's first nationwide understanding of British Euroscepticism. referendum. After that plebiscite landmark, a The premise underlying this research is that series of direct and indirect antagonisms on the the current understandings of the concept of London-Brussels route contributed to the creation Euroscepticism are rather the substrate of the of UK`s animosity against potential loss of its political discourse back in the middle and late sovereign powers. Although both Labour and 1980’s, during Margaret Thatcher’s series of Conservative parties were starting to show mandates as Prime Minister of Great Britain, sceptical attitudes towards the European project, tracing a narrative representation of the through a series of their members, the right wing transactional archetype of the UK’s relationship seemed to have generated much more with the European Economic Community before reservations. However, if in the past the party and after the agreement on the Single European cleavages based on Euroscepticism were only an Act. For a broad image of Thatcher's legacy, it is inside issue, starting from the late 90’s, the essential to have a clear vision of her European phenomenon reached a series of external agenda by analysing the language of consequences. One of them was the rise of Euroscepticism. Eurosceptic parties, with an anti-EU integration agenda which drawn increasing public sympathy and pressured on the political program of 2. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND mainstream parties. The financial crisis which started in late 2007, First of all, a qualitative analysis of British the spillover effect on the European Union and Euroscepticism can only be structured as long as the development of austerity policies inside the country is part of the European integration Member States exported Euroscepticism (WHITE, project, with the amendment that some 2012) from Great Britain to the whole European reminiscences of London's reluctance exist before continent. Thus, further integration, the viability joining this project. Europe has always been a of the Eurozone and enlargement aspirations deeply divisive problem in British politics were portrayed as a risk-sharing predisposition precisely because it constantly raised fundamental inside British politics. problems of national identity and conceding Lacking an ideological attachment to a post- sovereignty to Brussels. The British political World War II European integration project, discourse on this issue could be perceived as Britain's relationship with the EU has always subject-precise in a sign of highlighting been cost-effective, and the analysis that resides incongruity and inconsistency regarding through the UK’s European dilemma is European policies. determined by the question: Costs outweigh the The United Kingdom of Great Britain and benefits? Political Eurosceptic narratives Northern Ireland joined the European Economic emphasized mainly the costs, in a demarche to Community (EEC) in 1973, after a long period of highlight the dispute between euro-elites and the reflections, severe party debates and French veto British people, framing a context where the refusals. After this event, public discussion substance of integration is filled with European 200 Volume 9 • Issue 3, July / September 2019 • THE LANGUAGE OF EUROSCEPTICISM: STUDY CASE – MARGARET THATCHER AND HER BRUGES SPEECH FROM 1988 crises. In modern British society, the process of prerogatives of EU Member States in relation to forming political identity has led to the creation the European institutions. and resumption of Euroscepticism in various Margaret Thatcher’s third term, 1987-1990, ways that appear to be updated continuously. meant several reforms, especially in education, taxation, and the health system. Back then, the Cold War was heading for an end, which 3. MARGARET THATCHER AND THE coincided with the beginning of her decline, LANGUAGE OF HER BRUGES SPEECH caused by the deeper divisions in the Conservative (1988) Party. However, her speech at the College of Europe in Bruges, although it was credited as the Euroscepticism is associated constantly with expression of British Euroscepticism and the Conservative Party in the UK and with considered as a blocking factor in the development Margaret Thatcher as an initial exponent, with a of the relationship with the EEC, it did not adhere language that consists of two main domains of to the idea of a reluctant Great Britain that opposition which constantly intertwine- the questions its capacity as a member state of the economic and political one. FORTSTER (2002) EEC. Understanding the nature, scope and argues that the political discourse has a deep content of British Euroscepticism, its
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