In several European countries, we are still seeing a preference for populist and nationalist parties in elections to national parliaments. Parties defined in this way are currently also in power in Slovakia (Slovak National Party) and recently the strongest party in Austria is once again the Freedom Party of Austria. Our study aims to investigate and show the rhetoric and language used by these political parties in the run-up to the elections. Of particular interest are topics and statements that are based on false or alternative truths. The correlation between populist rhetoric and fake news and alternative truths is analyzed from a political linguistic perspective. The aim is to identify the specific characteristics of the language, and the linguistic strategies used to spread alternative truths. The analysis is based on the texts published on the internet and social media in the years 2021 to 2024. In particular, those texts that demonstrably argue with falsified facts and figures are taken into account. Showing selected case studies, these linguistic peculiarities and the persuasion strategies can be analyzed in a contrastive view. The basic research hypothesis is that the different languages show number of similar features and that political language in different countries is based on similar persuasive strategies. Understanding these strategies helps us on the one hand to comprehend the success of these political strategies and on the other hand to reveal the possible linguistic manipulation of the political speech.

Authors:
Jan Demcisak, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, Slovakia

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Jan Demcisak is currently university an assistant professor at Department of German studies at the University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, Slovakia.

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