Immigration and the revival of nationalist sentiments in France : a nationalistic rhetoric of Marine Le Pen

Abstract

This literary work investigates the rhetoric of Marine Le Pen and how she exploits the worsening immigration crisis to reawaken France’s nationalist spirit and to booster the Front National’s electoral support as seen in her speeches and electoral results respectively. My data is a careful selection of five spheeches of Marine Le Pen between 2011-2017 from the National Front’s official website.

This study aims to answer research question as to how the rising number of immigrants is portrayed in Marine Le Pen’s rhetoric. This study also seeks to uncover how the immigration crisis is portrayed in her speeches and what kinds of economic, political and socio-cultural impacts those speeches have. The methodoly consists of rhetorical analysis of Le Pen’s speeches under political, economic and socio-cultural themes.

Based on the analysis of my data, the results prove that Marine Le uses the immigration crisis in her speeches as a sour outcome of globalization and presents herself as the sole candidate that represents the interest of the French people. Through this rhetoric – which she has rebranded to suit republican values through the dédiablisation strategy, she has succeeded in making her rhetoric more acceptable and the National Front party more mainstream.

Key words: Immigration, nationalism, National Front, Marine Le Pen.