Images of anti-immigration populism: An analysis of the visual argumentation of UKIP’s European campaign

Authors

  • Cristian Santibáñez Yáñez Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile
  • Pablo Porto López Universidad de Buenos Aires

Abstract

The rise of conservative parties with Eurosceptic tendencies in different European countries is a relevant phenomenon of the dispersion forces that emerge in periods of economic crisis in the heart of the regional integrative processes. This work describes some salient aspects of the argumentation used by one of those political parties: The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). Our analysis accounts for some of its argumentative strategies, particularly those referring to the problem of autonomy of the countries within the European Union and the immigration policy. This argumentation has been exposed by the members of UKIP and its leader Nigel Farage in discourses and interviews but also, and specially, in a series of posters designed for the European elections in May of 2014. We conclude that this series of posters represents a complex and subordinated argumentation that constantly appeals to fear, to a populism technically and ideologically structured to stage a hero: the candidate Farage.

Keywords: visual argumentation, euroscepticism, populism, rhetoric, UKIP.

Published

2015-07-07

How to Cite

Santibáñez Yáñez, C., & Porto López, P. (2015). Images of anti-immigration populism: An analysis of the visual argumentation of UKIP’s European campaign. Calidoscópio, 13(2), 176–188. Retrieved from https://www.revistas.unisinos.br/index.php/calidoscopio/article/view/cld.2015.132.04

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Section

Articles