When Populists Govern the Country: Strategies of Legitimization of Anti-Immigration Policies in Salvini’s Italy

Laura Cervi, Santiago Tejedor and Mariana Alencar Dornelles
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Laura Cervi: Department of Journalism and Communication Sciences, Autonomous University of Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain
Santiago Tejedor: Department of Journalism and Communication Sciences, Autonomous University of Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain
Mariana Alencar Dornelles: Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universidad Europea del Atlántico, C/Isabel Torres, 21, 39011 Santander, Spain

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 23, 1-12

Abstract: The study aims at disclosing the narrative of immigration and the construction of the otherness in Italian Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini’s discourse, geared towards the legitimization of anti-immigration policies. For this purpose, the author analyzes a sample of the Italian Interior Minister’s discourses related to three cases of migrant landings, drawing on Proximization Theory, revealing how the concepts of closeness and remoteness are manipulated for the construction of threat and the legitimization of negative political response. The study concludes that Salvini’s discourse presents all the classic characteristics of populism. It depicts virtuous and hardworking people threatened by the “others”, them “illegals” who are not “legitimate refugees”, along with inventing a new antagonist “other”, the rescue NGOs that are framed as criminals, justifying their criminalization.

Keywords: populism; far-right parties; political discourse; anti-immigration discourse; refugee crisis; anti-immigration policies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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