STRATEGII ARGUMENTATIVE ÎN DISCURSUL POLITIC FRANCEZ DESPRE IMIGRAŢIE

Abstract

In the context of the three-party system currently existing in France, the contemporary
French political discourse is being marked out by the trend of shifting (more radically) to the
right-wing. Considering the attitudinal lockup in the field of the most controversial subject matter of immigration, the French political discourse takes various forms of expression which range from the veiled ones to the most vehement ones, depending on the political affiliation of the participants in the political communication. This research has been aimed at studying the argumentative strategies applied by the three prominent participants in the current political debates in France – Manuel Valls, Nicolas Sarkozy and Marine Le Pen – in order to impose their positions about immigration. The author demonstrates that the argumentative strategies used by such participants oscillate between conviction and persuasion: they appeal to logical reasoning, capitalize on political passions and, in the meantime, they are largely concerned with building up their own ethos. Based on the researched speeches, the growing intensity of the trend of shifting to the right-wing can be represented as follows: Manuel Valls < Nicolas Sarkozy < Marine Le Pen.