“Africa does not Fit in Europe”. A Comparative Analysis of Anti-immigration Parties’ Discourse in Spain and Italy

The politicization of immigration has moved the debate about immigration at the center of the run-up of elections, creating the breeding ground for the electoral breakthrough and success of right-wing populist parties. This article aims at disclosing the narrative of immigration and its politicization in VOX’s discourse, comparing it to the Italian Lega party. Clause-based semantic text analysis reveals that both parties share the classic characteristics of nativist populism: the representation of a virtuous and hardworking people, threatened by the invasion by some “others”, immigrants, who intrude the sovereign, antispace of natives to exploit and commit crimes. In both cases, the concept of space is manipulated, representing countries as limited spaces, allowing to depict immigrants as a threat to legitimize negative political responses. The study also identifies a novelty: the construction of the rescue NGOs as the new antagonist actor.