Populism at work: the language of the Brexiteers and the European Union

Abstract

This article investigates the recurring concepts emerging in a transnational social-media arena focusing on Brexit in the period immediately after the June 2016 referendum. It mainly focuses on a language/discourse analysis of Facebook posts by commentators interacting with the European Commission and the European Parliament. The article provides an ideological analysis of the main positions emerging in the transnational sphere of interactions between these two EU institutions and the wider public concerned with Brexit and active in a transnational discussion on a range of topics related to this process. It identifies the main issues that fueled British Euroscepticism, justifications for different attitudes towards Brexit and interrelations between opposite camps in the Brexit debate. It is argued that the contents of the debate emerging in the transnational arena identified vary considerably from the contents that were recurrent in the media and parliamentary debate. While the overwhelming framing in media and political discourse was focused on the migration issue, the debate emerging in the transnational arena appeared clearly focused on the legitimacy of supranational governance. It posits that this difference can be attributed to the make-up of the mini-public defined by the social networks interacting in debates on EU institutions.

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