Re-Narrating Europe in the Face of Populism: an Analysis of the Anti-Immigration Discourse of Populist Party Leaders
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Lega Nord and Anti-Immigrationism: the Importance of Hegemony Critique for Social Media Analysis and Protest
International Journal of Communication 12(2018), 3553–3579 1932–8036/20180005 Lega Nord and Anti-Immigrationism: The Importance of Hegemony Critique for Social Media Analysis and Protest CINZIA PADOVANI1 Southern Illinois University Carbondale, USA In this study, I implement Antonio Gramsci’s hegemony critique to analyze the anti- immigration rhetoric promoted by the Italian ultraright party Lega Nord [Northern League]. Specifically, this case study focuses on the discourse that developed on the microblogging site Twitter during the Stop Invasione [Stop Invasion] rally, organized by Matteo Salvini’s party on October 18, 2014, in Milan. I argue that hegemony critique is helpful to investigate political discourse on social media and to theorize the struggle surrounding contentious topics such as immigration. The method, which is multilayered and includes content analysis and interpretative analysis, allows for the exploration of a considerable data corpus but also an in-depth reading of each tweet. The result is a nuanced understanding of the anti-immigration discourse and of the discourse that developed in favor of immigration and in support of a countermarch, which progressive movements organized in response to Lega’s mobilization on the same day in Milan. Keywords: Lega Nord, ultraright media, far-right media, anti-immigrationism, Twitter, critical social media analysis, mobilization, Gramsci, hegemony critique The rise of ultraright movements in Western Europe and the United States is an indication of the continuous crisis of capitalism and neoliberal ideologies. The financial and economic downturn that plagued Europe and North America beginning in late 2008 and the consequent Brussels-imposed austerity in the European Union have exacerbated the rift between the haves and the have-nots. -
Italy a View From…
A view from… Italy News from FTI Consulting’s European affiliate network May 2019: Cattaneo Zanetto & Co. is part of FTI Consulting’s affiliate network and is the leading Italian public affairs, lobbying and political intelligence firm. They provide a range of specialised services structured in dedicated practice areas. Each practice has a specific set of tools and methods to make sure we’re always on the edge with creativity and innovation. Below the team provides an update ahead of the forthcoming EU Elections on the current Italian political landscape. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily the views of FTI Consulting, Inc. its management, its subsidiaries, its affiliates, or its other professionals, members of employees. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- European elections may represent a turning point for Italian politics. After almost a year of a Government led by Lega (former Northern League) and Movimento Cinque Stelle (M5S - Five Star Movement), the two parties increasingly appear as fierce competitors. An outcome strongly favourable to Matteo Salvini may rebalance the power sharing, while the rise of an alternative from the opposition still looks unlikely. The EU elections come as first nation-wide test of strength within Italy’s governing majority after almost a year after the birth of the cabinet led by President Giuseppe Conte. After a solid run in regional elections, Matteo Salvini’s Lega reached a favourable position in the polls, possibly aiming at reverting the balance of powers in case of a landslide win on May 26th. The outcome of European elections will then be crucial to terminate or exacerbate the conflict-ridden atmosphere which is surrounding the Government over the last months, involving direct and intense confrontation between the two deputy-prime ministers: Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio. -
The Role of Immigration in the Rise of Radical Right-Wing
Department of Political Science Major in Politics, Philosophy and Economics Chair of Political Sociology THE ROLE OF IMMIGRATION IN THE RISE OF RADICAL RIGHT-WING POPULISM IN ITALY: a case study on Lega's results at the 2018 political elections in three Italian municipalities. Claudia Lapenna Prof. Michele Sorice Matr. 083022 SUPERVISOR CANDIDATE Academic Year 2018/2019 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 4 Chapter One: Right-wing populism in Italy ................................................................................ 6 1.1 Definitional debate on radical right-wing populism ............................................................... 6 1.2 What drives support for radical right-wing populism? ........................................................... 7 1.3 The rise of Italian radical right-wing populism ...................................................................... 9 1.4 Italian radical right-wing populism in the 21st century ........................................................ 10 Chapter Two: Immigration in Italy ........................................................................................... 13 2.1 From an emigration to an immigration country: a recent history .......................................... 13 2.2 Regular vs irregular immigrants .......................................................................................... 15 2.4 Anti-immigrant attitudes: a theoretical -
Catholicism and European Politics: Introducing Contemporary Dynamics
religions Editorial Catholicism and European Politics: Introducing Contemporary Dynamics Michael Daniel Driessen Department of Political Science and International Affairs, John Cabot University, 00165 Rome, Italy; [email protected] 1. Introduction Recent research on political Catholicism in Europe has sought to theorize the ways in which Catholic politics, including Catholic political parties, political ideals, and political entrepreneurs, have survived and navigated in a post-secular political environment. Many of these studies have articulated the complex ways in which Catholicism has adjusted and transformed in late modernity, as both an institution and a living tradition, in ways which have opened up unexpected avenues for its continuing influence on political practices and ideas, rather than disappearing from the political landscape altogether, as much Citation: Driessen, Michael Daniel. previous research on religion and modernization had expected. Among other things, this 2021. Catholicism and European new line of research has re-evaluated the original and persistent influence of Catholicism Politics: Introducing Contemporary on the European Union, contemporary European politics and European Human Rights Dynamics. Religions 12: 271. https:// discourses. At the same time, new political and religious dynamics have emerged over doi.org/10.3390/rel12040271 the last five years in Europe that have further challenged this developing understanding of contemporary Catholicism’s relationship to politics in Europe. This includes the papal Received: 26 March 2021 election of Pope Francis, the immigration “crisis”, and, especially, the rise of populism and Accepted: 6 April 2021 new European nationalists, such as Viktor Orbán, Jaroslaw Kaczynski and Matteo Salvini, Published: 13 April 2021 who have publicly claimed the mantles of Christian Democracy and Catholic nationalism while simultaneously refashioning those cloaks for new ends. -
Journal of Contemporary European Research Euroscepticism Between
Journal of Contemporary European Research Volume 17, Issue 2 (2021) Research Article Euroscepticism between Populism and Technocracy: The Case of Italian Lega and Movimento 5 Stelle Franco Zappettini and Marzia Maccaferri Citation Zappettini, F. and Maccaferri, M. (2021). ‘Euroscepticism between Populism and Technocracy: The Case of Italian Lega and Movimento 5 Stelle’ in, Journal of Contemporary European Research 17 (2): 239-257. https://doi.org/10.30950/jcer.v17i2.1184 First published at: www.jcer.net Volume 17, Issue 2 (2021) Franco Zappettini and Marzia Maccaferri Abstract This paper analyses the digital communication of Italian parties Lega and Movimento 5 Stelle during their campaigns for the European Parliament elections (January-May 2019). We focus on the Italian case as it is representative of a generalised shift in European public discourse towards an overt delegitimation of the European project and its re-imagination. In the Italian case, Lega and Movimento 5 Stelle, which were in a Government coalition for fourteen months, have been instrumental in Italy’s shift from a strong Europhile country to one of the most Eurosceptic. However, while Lega has definitely aligned itself with a strong right-wing populist agenda, Movimento 5 Stelle has promoted a populist technocratic vision of democracy. Our analysis shows that the articulation of Eurosceptic discourses from both parties by and large reflects the two stances above with Lega’s messages (primarily produced by its leader Matteo Salvini) characterised by a ‘hyperled’ style of communication and stronger nativist elements (for example the appeal to an ethno-centric and ‘sovereign’ idea of Italy) than those of Movimento 5 Stelle, which instead relied on a ‘horizontal’ communicative style. -
Italy's Di Maio Dismisses Talk of Pandemic Debt Cancellation
Luigi Di Maio Italy’s Di Maio dismisses talk of pandemic debt cancellation But foreign minister and former Five Star Movement leader says EU fiscal rules no longer fit for purpose Luigi Di Maio: ‘We must focus on spending this money in the most productive way for Italy’ © AFP via Getty Images Miles Johnson and Davide Ghiglione in Rome 5 HOURS AGO Italy must pay back all of the additional public borrowing it has taken on to combat the Covid-19 crisis and does not need to resort to cancelling any of its government debt, the country’s foreign minster Luigi Di Maio said. In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Di Maio played down recent debate inside the Italian government over the possibility that Rome could ask the European Central Bank to wipe out pandemic-linked borrowing. He argued that the large public sector debt of the eurozone’s third-biggest economy was sustainable. “The objective has to be a sustainable debt and a good debt,” he said. “There has been a great debate about the debt incurred during the pandemic. I believe instead that we must now focus on spending this money in the best productive way for Italy. We need to make sure that these debt investments can be repaid and that they are productive investments.” Italy’s public debt is forecast to rise above 160 per cent of gross domestic product this year as a result of the sharp economic contraction caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the large stimulus packages launched by the government to combat it. -
Il PCI Nel 2021
Autore: Dario Carcano Beduina rossa Il PCI nel 2020 Autore: Dario Carcano 30 aprile 1988. Il segretario del PCI Alessandro Natta viene colpito da un lieve infarto mentre partecipa ad un evento politico a Gubbio, tuttavia una rapida visita ospedaliera rassicura sulle sue condizioni. Nel Partito c’era chi avrebbe voluto approfittare dell’infarto per sostituire Natta con un segretario più giovane, tuttavia il fatto che le condizioni di salute del segretario fossero tutt’altro che critiche, fece rapidamente tramontare questa possibilità. Natta, berlingueriano di ferro e continuista del marxismo, era infatti inviso ad una parte del Partito che voleva rinnovare il PCI e ricucire lo strappo col PSI. La questione era percepita come di urgente risoluzione, in particolare da coloro che temevano un sorpasso del PSI craxiano sui comunisti. Tuttavia, Natta aveva sempre seccamente respinto ogni richiesta di cambio nel nome del Partito, e i contrasti con Occhetto su questo punto avevano portato al suo allontanamento dalla segreteria. Il buon risultato del PCI alle europee del 1989, il 27,6%, ossia un punto in più rispetto alle politiche del 1987, ridiede fiato alla segreteria di Natta, che poteva argomentare come non ci fosse un crollo nei consensi tale da giustificare un radicale cambio di direzione. Però i fatti dell’autunno 1989, il crollo del Muro di Berlino e dei regimi comunisti nell’Europa Orientale, riaccesero il dibattito, ma Natta tenne duro: “I partiti dell’Europa Orientale si sono identificati col potere dello stato, sono stati il partito unico al governo, hanno fondato e gestito dei regimi. Noi non siamo mai stati né un partito di regime né un partito di comando, la libertà nel nostro paese non l'abbiamo mai conculcata, l’abbiamo anzi conquistata e difesa. -
Centre Suisse Pour La Défense Des Droits Des Migrants
Case postale 171 CH-1211 Genève 8 Tél : 022 807 07 14 Fax : 022 807 07 01 [email protected] www.centre-csdm.org Geneva, 4 December 2020 Submission of information to the OHCHR pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 43/1 on Policing the Central Mediterranean: mass drownings and systematic torture of persons of African descent. “States and the ICC-Prosecutor should examine whether investigations for crimes against humanity or war crimes are warranted in view of the scale, gravity and increasingly systematic nature of torture, ill- treatment and other serious human rights violations … as a direct or indirect consequence of deliberate State policies and practices of deterrence, criminalization, arrival prevention, and refoulement”.1 Nils Melzer, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment 1 Special Rapporteur on torture quoted in Itamar Man et al., 2018, EJIL: Talk!; https://www.ejiltalk.org/time-to- investigate-european-agents-for-crimes-against-migrants-in-libya/. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE I. Executive Summary 3 II. Policing the Central Mediterranean 9 A. Drownings 9 a. Termination of EU and Italian Rescue Activities in the 9 Mediterranean b. Redefining Sea-Rescue as a Crime: the Obstruction of NGO 14 Search and Rescue Efforts c. Closing Ports 16 i. Italy 16 ii. Malta 22 B. Torture and Ill-treatment 29 a. Italy and Pull-Backs to Torture: a Case Study on Refoulement 29 by Proxy i. Background to Bilateral Cooperation between Italy and 29 Libya ii. The Memorandum of Understanding of February 2017 33 and its Renewal in February 2021 iii. -
The Neo-Fascist Territorial Legacy and the Success of the Lega in the 2019 European Elections: a Multilevel Approach
Italian Political Science, VOLUME 14 ISSUE 2, OCTOBER 2019 The neo-fascist territorial legacy and the success of the Lega in the 2019 European elections: a multilevel approach Moreno Mancosu UNIVERSITY OF TURIN Riccardo Ladini UNIVERSITY OF MILAN Abstract In Italy, the Lega obtained outstanding electoral success in the 2019 European elections, becoming the first party on the political spectrum. Previous literature has argued that this performance can be attributed to the leadership of Matteo Salvini, who transformed the Lega from an ethno-regionalist party into a national right-wing party (Passarelli and Tuorto, 2018). Previous research has also argued that the recent geographical trajectories of the party’s success might be associated with the prevalence of a neo-fascist minority during the First Republic (e.g. Mancosu, 2015). However, the empirical evidence comes from aggregate official results and focuses only on some specific Italian regions of the so-called ‘red-zone’. By employing multilevel models on survey data, this paper tests whether this expectation holds also at the individual level, and in a larger geographical area. The findings show that individual propensities to vote for the Lega in 2019 are associated with the percentage of votes obtained more than forty years ago by the Movimento Sociale Italiano in the municipality where the re- spondent lives, but only in central and southern Italian regions, in which the Lega was an irrelevant competitor before Salvini’s leadership. These findings provide additional evidence concerning the ideological drivers of pref- erences for the Lega. 1. Introduction n Italy, the most relevant outcome of the 2019 European Elections was the outstand- ing consensus for the Lega, which obtained more than 9 million votes, equal to 34% of I valid votes. -
The 2019 European Parliament Elections
CRS INSIGHT The 2019 European Parliament Elections June 5, 2019 (IN11128) | Related Author Kristin Archick | Kristin Archick, Specialist in European Affairs ([email protected], 7-2668) Between May 23 and 26, 2019, the 28 member states of the European Union (EU) held elections for the 751 members of the next European Parliament (EP). The only directly elected EU institution, the EP represents the bloc's roughly 513 million citizens. The EP has accumulated more power over time within the EU, and through such entities as the Transatlantic Legislators' Dialogue, Congress is likely to engage the EP, including on certain aspects of U.S.-EU relations. Some analysts suggest that gains for parties considered "euroskeptic"—that is, critical of the EU or anti-EU to varying degrees—may influence the functioning of the EP, the EU, and the conduct of U.S.-EU relations. (See also CRS In Focus IF11211, The European Parliament and U.S. Interests.) Election Results and Possible Implications Members of the EP (MEPs) serve five-year terms and are organized into groups that caucus according to political orientation rather than nationality. A political group must consist of at least 25 MEPs from a minimum of seven EU countries. In the 2014-2019 EP, there were eight political groups—containing over 200 national parties—and several "non-attached" or independent MEPs. Political groups give MEPs more influence, as groups receive funding from the EP and more speaking time and have a formal role in EP decision-making. The relative size of the groups also helps determine EP leadership and committee posts. -
Representing Muslims: Islamophobic Discourse and the Construction Of
Representing Muslims: Islamophobic discourse and the construction of identities in Britain since 2001 Leonie Jackson BA, MA A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy April 2015 This work or any part thereof has not previously been presented in any form to the University or to any other body whether for the purposes of assessment, publication or for any other purpose (unless otherwise indicated). Save for any express acknowledgments, references and/or bibliographies cited in the work, I confirm that the intellectual content of the work is the result of my own efforts and of no other person. The right of Leonie Jackson to be identified as author of this work is asserted in accordance with ss.77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. At this date copyright is owned by the author. Signature……………………………………….. Date…………………………………………….. 1 Abstract Employing critical race theory as a theoretical and analytical framework, this thesis explores the nature, structure and purpose of Islamophobic discourse, and offers two central contributions to the scholarly debate on Islamophobia. First, it contributes to the literature on the nature of Islamophobia by analysing the form and structure of discourse that seeks to represent Muslims and Islam in a number of social and political sites. Second, the thesis addresses a significant gap identified in the scholarly literature, which has largely overlooked the purpose that Islamophobic discourse serves for those employing it. In order to address the nature and structure of Islamophobic discourse, the thesis analyses representations of Muslims and Islam in dominant national community cohesion and counterterrorism discourses; rearticulation of these discourses at the local level in the West Midlands town of Dudley; the use of Islamophobic discourse by the English Defence League; and the ways in which Islamophobic narratives were used to mark national boundaries in Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands and France. -
The Transatlantic 'Counterjihad' and the New Political Theology
‘Green Crescent, Crimson Cross’: The Transatlantic ‘Counterjihad’ and the New Political Theology Ed Pertwee A thesis submitted to the Department of Sociology of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, London, October 2017 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil/PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it ispermit- ted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of 87,083 words. i Acknowledgements My deepest gratitude goes to my supervisor, Professor Chetan Bhatt, for his support and encouragement over the past four years. He has been a constant source of inspir- ation and I owe him an enormous intellectual debt. I am also grateful to the Economic and Social Research Council and to the London School of Economics for their generous financial support, without which this research would not have been possible. I spent several days exploring the Searchlight Archive at the University of Northampton, which was a treasure trove of information. My thanks go to Dan Jones, who was invaluable in helping me to navigate the collections.