Continuing with latest consequences this Freedom of Movement had, I began with discussing the crisis and politicization of issues of great impact for all European citizens. Professor Ivaldi claimed that the majority of the French have a moderate political view, nonetheless the Extreme Right-wing ideology has emerged and is going strong. PRR parties feed in these focusing events to inflate fear in people’s minds and win them over to become member or adhere to their point of view. France was not considered to be in an imminent crisis, but just before conducting the interviews extremist- Islamic terrorism stroke again. This called for the adjustment of my expectation to the following:
‘It is expected to find the expression of PRR party values in at least one discourse. In the beginning of this research I expected nonetheless the extreme Right-wing ideals not to be the dominant discourse direction. Considering the March 2018 terrorist attack in the city of Trèbes, I expect the Eurosceptic position to dominate the identified discourses’.
As already touched upon, compliance to European Integration amongst the respondents of this research is inclined to the hostile attitude. As expected one specific discourse was found to express PRR party values, but all the discourses express concern with security. As I have no data to compare I cannot legitimately assign this consequence to the recent terrorist attack. Nonetheless, as professor Ivaldi’s theory claims that Euroscepticism goes hand in hand with crisis, I am inclined to see a possible causal relation between the recent attack and the dominance of hostility towards EU integration. This would thereby confirm my expectation.
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Continuing on PRR party values, more precisely those of the French Front National, I had the following expectation:
‘I expect the discourse expressing Extreme Right-wing political ideologies to stress issues like migrants being problems and stealing French jobs, and to voice discriminatory on the verge of racist political views’.
When examining the French Nationalist’s discourse I found what I had expected. The discourse expresses the idea of being highly offended by the fact that the EU lets everyone enter the EU without any conditions. Millions of immigrants enter the EU like they would go to a local shop end steal people’s jobs. Schengen does not assure out security according to the respondents and we must imminently reinstate national borders and leave the EU. In the personal opinions of respondents within this discourse the claim was made that Macron should focus more on France instead of being preoccupied with European matters. My expectation was right, still I want to stress that this extreme hostile attitude is limited to this one discourse and only generalized to the corresponding respondents (counting 3 distinguishing respondents out of 20 total in the P-set).
Concentrating on the terrorist threat that is still considered imminent in France, I discused three claims to understand public opinion after a terrorist attack: the Reactive Liberals Hypothesis (RLH), the Terror Management Theory (TMT), and the Bayesian Updating Theory (BUT) (Brouard, Vasilopoulos, & Foucault, 2018). The following expectation resulted from the discussion:
‘I expect to link the discourse claiming better protection from the government and criticising the Freedom of Movement for not ensuring security to RLH. When I identify a discourse concerned with the security of the French population but not at the expense of the Freedom of Movement, I will link this to the BUT. Finally, the strong Extreme Right-wing discourse I expect to identify will be linked to the suggestions of TMT’.
The Patriots Discourse fulfils the criteria of the Reactive Liberals Hypothesis. They blame the Schengen agreement for putting at risk the security of the French and advocate for social control through national border control. Still, as they state there are real convergences between the different
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cultures of Europe, and they want to help refugees and economic migrants I am inclined to think these respondents may have been left-wingers that shifted their view to Right-wing in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks.
The Bayesian Updating Theory is also identified. I have the Safety & Security Discourse and the Anti-Capitalist Discourse that I would link to this theory. Both discourses are in favour of the Freedom of movement, but they both stress the issue of ensuring effective border control. This causes convergence on the matter of security, which they both approach with lenience to the Right- wing ideology. Therefore both discourses fit the BUT.
As expected I also identified an extreme discourse, this one I link to the Terror Management Theory. As events like financial crisis and terrorist attacks haunt people’s minds, infuses them with anxiety and reminds them of mortality, their political ideology gets intensified. The French Nationalists Discourse is extremely concerned with the protection of the French National border, they stress the issue will cause differences between West and East to grow larger as the issue grows in magnitude and do not seem to care about helping refugees or any migrants.
The claims very well fit the discourses identified in the research and help us understand the train of thought the respondents have gone through. As the media is well known for influencing the public opinion, it is very important to understand how they frame the refugee/migration crisis. I identified the articles of the main French newspapers to adapt a most positive stance towards migrants and the situations they go through. As the extreme-Right-wing ideology has gained lots of support in Europe, the newspapers are steering the public view in a less hostile direction by framing the articles from the perspective of migrants. Therefore I drew the following expectation:
‘As people rely on the information of newspaper articles for their information, they give them the power of framing the news as they deem suitable. I expect public opinion to be mostly in line with the point of view the news articles advance’.
Very interesting to notice is that when I approached people to ask rather they wanted to become a respondent within a research about the Freedom of Movement of the EU, most of the people immediately responded with: ‘Are you sure? I don’t know anything about that.’ Or ‘I only know what I see in the news or newspaper, I am not a politician’. The respondents were well aware of their so to say ‘lack’ of information.
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As expected I found discourses very much in line with the concerns stated in the newspapers, whilst the French Nationalist Discourse followed the opposite path. The claim of Terror Management Theory can be actively seen here as well. As with the information they get, these respondents are reminded of the ‘constant interruption’ of established French society, the people are infused with fear leading to their extremist ideologies. Again, it is only one of the four discourses that expresses this extreme hostile tone, the majority of the discourses seem to be in line with my expectation.
Little over a year ago the French elected Emmanuel Macron as their new president. With his young age, very inclusive way of reporting on his daily actions through social media and support for a strong European Union, the following is expected:
‘I expect the positive stance of Macron towards the EU, to translate within at least one discourse identified’.
As mentioned before, the current levels of trust in president Macron by the French in not very high. It account for only 41% of the respondents within the public opinion poll of March 2018. Furthermore, the Anti-Capitalist discourse, criticizes Macron for not stepping up his game concerning the security of the people, leaving another less positive note within public opinion. I am inclined to deny my expectation and not link it to a causal-relation with Macron. I do not seem to find clear evidence, nor indications, that Macron has any major role in the positive attitude, the respondents in my research may voice through the discourses.
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