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Right-Wing Populist Discourse in the European Parliament on Turkish Foreign Policy

Right-wing populism is on the rise all over the world and has led to profound effects and changes in the international system. The European continent, which is identified with democracy and human rights, also sees its share of this trend. Today, right-wing populist parties and actors are gaining strength in many EU countries and come to the fore as a serious political focus. The European Parliament (EP), as an example of direct democracy, has become one of the most visible institutions facing this shift. In this article, the discourses of right-wing populist parliamentarians in the EP toward Türkiye are focused on through a social constructivist perspective. The 2009-2014 and 2014-2019 parliamentary periods are analyzed comparatively to present which discursive strategies MEPs used in their statements about Türkiye and what kind of Türkiye representation they constructed in the EP. The article benefits from critical discourse analysis studies and aims to contribute to the literature on the attitudes of right-wing populist groups on Türkiye.

Right-Wing Populist Discourse in the European Parliament on Turkish Foreign
 

 

 

 

Introduction

 

The rising right-wing populist movements in the European continent continue to become more and more controversial. To cite a few, gathering the right-wing populist parties in Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni carried the right-wing populist idea to power after many years. Likewise, a right-wing populist party has become the main opposition in Sweden, which is known as the stronghold of social democracy. In France, it became a tradition for Marine Le Pen, who inherited the flag from her father, to run in the presidential elections. The fact that previous American President Donald J. Trump’s supporters stormed the Congress building after the elections and that a far-right group in Germany recently attempted a coup has revealed how serious the issue of right-wing populism can actually be in terms of the existence of democratic institutions. Although studies on both right-wing populist actors and their foreign policy discourses have increased recently, it can be argued that the number of these studies is still quite insufficient. This deficiency becomes much more concrete when it comes to such discourses against Türkiye.

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