The Construction of the Nation and Its Enemies in the Discourse of the Slovak Extreme Right Party K-ĽSNS
The Construction of the Nation and Its Enemies in the Discourse of the Slovak Extreme Right Party K-ĽSNS

Summary/Abstract: The paper deals with the discursive construction of a nation and its enemies in the discourse of the Slovak extreme right party, Kotlebovci – People's Party Our Slovakia (K-ĽSNS). K-ĽSNS is one of the most dominant extreme right parties in Slovakia and the concept of the nation belong among key concepts they work with. The communication of the political parties has been research objective for a long time because political discourse has huge influence on public opinion. The paper's main objective was to reveal how the Slovak nation and its enemies are constructed in the discourse of K-ĽSNS and how discursive strategies were applied in this construction. Attention was also paid to the relationship between the Slovak nation and K-ĽSNS. The pre-election newspaper consisting of the election program of K-ĽSNS from 2020, was analysed. In the paper, the nation was understood as a social construct that must be systematically legitimized and reconstructed by various discourses in everyday social and political life. Thus, discourse analysis was chosen for text analysis. The analysis showed that the Slovak nation was presented as a victim and under the constant threat of its enemies (mainly politicians and minorities). The most often mentioned enemies were the Roma people and liberals. K-ĽSNS presented itself as the only political party able to protect the Slovak nation against its enemies.

• Details
• Contents