‘It’s the EU’s fault!’ Strategies of blame avoidance in Andrej Babiš’s discourse on the conflict-of-interest case

Kód výsledku v IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F61989592%3A15210%2F22%3A73614517" target="_blank" >RIV/61989592:15210/22:73614517 - isvavai.cz</a>

Výsledek na webu

<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23745118.2022.2043066?journalCode=rpep21" target="_blank" >https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23745118.2022.2043066?journalCode=rpep21</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23745118.2022.2043066" target="_blank" >10.1080/23745118.2022.2043066</a>

Jazyk výsledku

angličtina

Název v původním jazyce

‘It’s the EU’s fault!’ Strategies of blame avoidance in Andrej Babiš’s discourse on the conflict-of-interest case

Popis výsledku v původním jazyce

The article investigates strategies of blame avoidance in the discourse of the Czech Prime Minister (PM), Andrej Babiš, on the conflict-of-interest case over the misuse of European Union (EU) funds. Taking a critical discursive perspective and working with a dataset of Babiš’s public pronouncements on his conflict of interest during the period of 2019–2021, the study uncovers the particular ways of arguing, framing, denying, characterising social actors, legitimising and manipulating that Babiš exploited when trying to avoid blame in the conflict of interest case. It reveals that the conflict of interest case has provided opportunities for the Czech PM to play a multi-dimensional blame game against the EU, orchestrate a discursive battle with the EU and invoke nationalist feelings. We argue that this discursive patterning signals a departure from his hitherto pragmatic approach to the EU, with Babiš increasingly radicalizing his explicitly exclusionary construction of the EU, promulgating anti-EU sentiment and countenancing the polarization between the EU on the one hand and the Czech Republic on the other.

Název v anglickém jazyce

‘It’s the EU’s fault!’ Strategies of blame avoidance in Andrej Babiš’s discourse on the conflict-of-interest case

Popis výsledku anglicky

The article investigates strategies of blame avoidance in the discourse of the Czech Prime Minister (PM), Andrej Babiš, on the conflict-of-interest case over the misuse of European Union (EU) funds. Taking a critical discursive perspective and working with a dataset of Babiš’s public pronouncements on his conflict of interest during the period of 2019–2021, the study uncovers the particular ways of arguing, framing, denying, characterising social actors, legitimising and manipulating that Babiš exploited when trying to avoid blame in the conflict of interest case. It reveals that the conflict of interest case has provided opportunities for the Czech PM to play a multi-dimensional blame game against the EU, orchestrate a discursive battle with the EU and invoke nationalist feelings. We argue that this discursive patterning signals a departure from his hitherto pragmatic approach to the EU, with Babiš increasingly radicalizing his explicitly exclusionary construction of the EU, promulgating anti-EU sentiment and countenancing the polarization between the EU on the one hand and the Czech Republic on the other.

Druh

J_SC - Článek v periodiku v databázi SCOPUS

CEP obor

—

OECD FORD obor

50601 - Political science

Projekt

<a href="/cs/project/GA19-10214S" target="_blank" >GA19-10214S: Český politický diskurz polykrize EU a budoucnosti evropské integrace v éře její destabilizace</a><br>

Návaznosti

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Rok uplatnění

2022

Kód důvěrnosti údajů

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Název periodika

European Politics and Society

ISSN

2374-5118

e-ISSN

2374-5126

Svazek periodika

24

Číslo periodika v rámci svazku

3

Stát vydavatele periodika

GB - Spojené království Velké Británie a Severního Irska

Počet stran výsledku

18

Strana od-do

392-409

Kód UT WoS článku

—

EID výsledku v databázi Scopus

2-s2.0-85125367176