TY - THES ID - 135620119 TI - The narrative of destruction: populist narratives of the past in Italy and Hungary AU - Ciai, Martina AU - Pasture, Patrick AU - KU Leuven. Faculteit Letteren. Opleiding Master of European Studies. Transnational and Global Perspectives (Leuven) PY - 2019 PB - Leuven KU Leuven. Faculteit Letteren DB - UniCat UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:135620119 AB - In recent years Populism was at the center of several political and academic debates. It is still very problematic and often arduous to find a clear and neat definition of the political movement. The aim of this thesis is not to discuss the nature of the political movement but to frame and deepen a specific perspective of it: the uses of the past in the populist narratives in Italy and Hungary. These result in the rhetoric of the populist politicians and can be considered as an attempt to link the chaotic present with a structured and orderly past. In order to understand populist strategies, I look at a corpus of Speculative Speeches by Matteo Salvini and Viktor Orbán. I first analyze the framework of European Populism by looking at the theories developed to discern the movement in Europe. Second, I’m deepening the dimension of right-wing populist parties in their strategy to build the ‘sense of collective’. By the use of a common past (that is evoked and often re-written) and by the exacerbation of the concept of identity, the politicians divide the society in two different groups: the nativist (in-group) and the outsiders (out-group). Third, I examine the opposition past-present and the employment of the former to frame and influence the latter as another populist strategy that results in continuum with the concept of fascist Palingenesis. From one side the Hungarian’s prime minister uses of the past (Treaty of Trianon and the Communist regime in Hungary) create a new space for the ideological fruition of history, where it is possible for the Central European country to consolidate a new way to perceive its own past. From the other side, I analyze Salvini’s call for a renewal of Italian life and the correspondences with the fascist mentality and with the idea of decadence. Finally, at the end of this first part, I define the main differences that emerge between right and left-wing populist parties in Europe in the context of migration and human rights. In my analysis, by using Political Discourse Analysis and elements of Reinhart Koselleck’s conceptual history, illustrated by Bernhard Forchtner and Christoffer Kølvraa in their study, I show how the politicians are successfully evoking and often re-writing their national past. In the first part of the analysis, I investigate the politician’s rhetoric connected with the idea of preservation and with the creation of the out-group. Secondly, I show the chameleon trait of the migration’s topic and by which means and where it is adopted in the narrative of the politicians. Finally, I tackle the Eurosceptic dimension in the visions of the populist spokesmen by showing how the EU is criticized and placed within the out-group. The main conclusion of the analysis is the application of the narrative of destruction. The narrative of destruction is often symbolized by the desire to return to an original order prior to the present one which is destroyed throughout the rhetoric of the spokesmen and defined in terms of chaos and crisis. This strategic narrative is used to demolish the present and celebrate the common national past. It also results in the demolition of the other, inter alia the migrant, the EU, and the political opponent, presented as illegitimate. Finally, the strategy is used for the creation of constructed categories within the people that oppose an in-group and an out-group. ER -