Abstract
Focusing on migration policies debated in the European Parliament (EP), this chapter studies the plenary speeches of four right-wing political groups between 2009 and 2017. The objective is to observe the narratives of mainstream right Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) (European People’s Party [EPP]) and their evolution over time, as well as to compare them to the speeches of three peripheral right groups’ representatives (ECR, EFD(D), ENF). As the latter gained significant political weight following the 2014 European elections, we expected the EPP speeches to be progressively suffused with some peripheral right discursive content, reflecting a more restrictive and nationalist position. However, we found a high level of EPP discursive independence towards these peripheral right groups as its narrative patterns have mostly remained similar over time and have kept a distinct content.
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Notes
- 1.
Asylum; Borders; Expulsion; Frontex; Immigration; Lampedusa; Migrant; Migration; Refugee; Relocation; Resettlement; Schengen; Stockholm Programme; Visa.
- 2.
Twenty-one debates were categorized as unclassifiable and were removed from the final corpus. Two other categories, focusing on irregular and regular migration respectively, were not sufficiently substantiated to constitute a relevant cluster. Moreover, a significant number of debates appeared either too horizontal or too specific to be allocated to any of the categories.
- 3.
Specific descriptions of the clusters can be provided by the authors upon request.
- 4.
COELHO (EPP), July 6, 2011.
- 5.
WEBER (EPP), July 4, 2017.
- 6.
GIANNAKOU (EPP), April 19, 2012.
- 7.
IACOLINO (EPP), October 9, 2013.
- 8.
MUSCARDINI (ECR), October 9, 2013.
- 9.
IACOLINO (EPP), October 9, 2013.
- 10.
WOZEMBERG-VRIONIDI (EPP), October 2015.
- 11.
KAMALL (ECR), April 29, 2015.
- 12.
AGEA (EFDD), November 25, 2014.
- 13.
MAURO (EPP), April 4, 2011.
- 14.
METSOLA (EPP), May 11, 2016.
- 15.
WEBER (EPP), October 9, 2013.
- 16.
MAEIJER (ENF), December 16, 2015.
- 17.
KIRKHOPE (ECR), October 9, 2013.
- 18.
CORAZZA BILDT (EPP), October 6, 2010.
- 19.
BONI (EPP), April 5, 2017.
- 20.
The table of aggregated results can be provided by the authors upon request.
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Cristoforetti, B., Querton, L. (2019). Migration Policies Debates in the European Parliament: Does the Mainstream Right Stand Its Ground?. In: Costa, O. (eds) The European Parliament in Times of EU Crisis. European Administrative Governance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97391-3_14
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