Der politische und mediale Diskurs in Serbien und Kroatien zwischen Euroskeptizismus und Populismus
The Language of the Current Political and Media Discourses in Serbia and Croatia between Euroscepticism and Populism

Summary/Abstract: Abstract. This paper examines public communication in Serbia and Croatia in the frame of the EUrope-discourse. Elements of both political communication (direct statements by politicians, political slogans, etc.) as well as media coverage (in print media) were analyzed. The paper attempts to elaborate linguistic resources that are particularly relevant for populist and/or eurosceptic statements, such as active-passive transformation, the use of the personal pronoun “we”, certain types of clauses, and especially lexical and stylistic figures. The findings confirm the hypothesis that public communication in both countries has strong similarities to those in the 1990s. Regardless of some lexical innovations in the eurosceptic and critical statements about the European Union, no relevant linguistic and discourse changes could be determined in the surveyed countries. The political and the media discourse in these Southeastern Euro- pean countries continue to exist without a serious reflection on the notion “European Union”.

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