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Consensual Politics and Pragmatism in Parliamentary Discourse on the ‘Refugee Issue’

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Political Communication

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Discursive Psychology ((PSDP))

Abstract

This chapter explores the rhetorical articulation, as well as the implications of appeals for consensus and pragmatism in parliamentary discourse on the ‘refugee issue’ in Greece. The analytic corpus consists of transcripts of two debates on refugee policy in the Greek parliament, conducted in spring 2016. Analytic tools and concepts are derived from rhetorical and discursive social psychology, and parliamentary discourse is approached as historically contingent and context-bound communicative action. Analysis indicated that, in the context of debating the alleged connection between the refugee movement and security issues, leading Greek politicians of both the governing and the opposition party warranted their policy choices through recourse to pragmatism and realpolitik. Specifically, in one line of arguing, speakers used the language of unanimity and represented themselves as putting the national above the party interest. According to another common way of arguing, political actors constituted political realism as an indisputable criterion of evaluating policy choices and portrayed their differences with their opponents as differences in effectiveness. The discussion emphasizes the social exclusionary implications of co-articulating appeals to (particular) national interest with pleas to (the alleged as universal) rationality and pragmatism in the context of discussing the refugee issue. It also highlights the potential of a rhetorical approach to political communication to draw attention to its argumentative nature and multiple audiences and to document its historical and social psychological aspects.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This is the term used in the official statement (European Commission 2016).

  2. 2.

    In two cases in which lengthy digressions from the subject have occurred (to address issues concerned with the procedure), part of the exchange has been omitted. The omission is notated by the use of three dots in brackets.

  3. 3.

    It is a detention camp located in the north of Athens. When SY.RIZ.A was in the opposition, it recurrently criticized the governing party (N.D) for the wretched conditions prevailing in it. During spring of 2015 the SY.RIZ.A-led government began releasing migrants from Amygdaleza following two suicides at the camp. Nevertheless, in November 2016, the facilities of Amygdaleza were again used for the temporary hosting of families of refugees and migrants, as well as for the protective custody of unaccompanied minors.

  4. 4.

    Patras and Igoumenitsa are ports located in Western and Southern Greece which have been transformed into informal centres of immigrants and refugees hoping to leave Greece and continue on to Northern Europe (through Italy).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Lia Figgou & Dimitra Anagnostopoulou

Authors
  1. Lia Figgou
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  2. Dimitra Anagnostopoulou
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Correspondence to Lia Figgou .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Psychology Department, York St John University, York, UK

    Mirko A. Demasi

  2. Psychology Department, Teesside University, Middlesbrough, UK

    Shani Burke

  3. Department of Social Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK

    Cristian Tileagă

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Figgou, L., Anagnostopoulou, D. (2020). Consensual Politics and Pragmatism in Parliamentary Discourse on the ‘Refugee Issue’. In: Demasi, M.A., Burke, S., Tileagă, C. (eds) Political Communication. Palgrave Studies in Discursive Psychology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60223-9_10

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