The aim of the study is to analyze false labeling and double standards in the populist discourse of the “new” opposition – the Law and Justice (PiS) party, which lost the 2023 Polish parliamentary elections after 8 years rule. The data used in the study come from our corpus of Polish political discourse. The theoretical framework within which the analysis has been conducted is the Discourse-Historical Approach to Critical Discourse Studies. The discourse has been analyzed in terms of its content, discursive strategies, linguistic expressions and rhetorical devices and context. The main findings of the study allowed us to formulate the following conclusions: The PiS party evaluation of the Polish political reality involves double standards and the biased use of false labeling. PiS rhetoric resembles Hitler’s and Donald Trump’s rhetorical styles. The strategy “call them what they call you” is frequently employed in negative presentations of the current governing coalition.
Bogdanowska-JakubowskaEBogdanowskaN (2023) Rhetoric of Polish political discourse on family. In: WeiWSheiC (eds) Routledge Handbook of Descriptive Rhetorical Studies and World Languages. Routledge, pp.218–233.
3.
Bogdanowska-JakubowskaEBogdanowskaN (2025) National identity construction in Polish right-wing populist discourse. Critical Discourse Studies. Epub ahead of print. DOI: 10.1080/17405904.2025.2505435.
4.
BurkeK (2006 [1973]) The rhetoric of Hitler’s ‘battle’. In: JowettGSO’DonnellV (eds) Readings in Propaganda and Persuasion: New and Classic Essays. Sage, pp.149–168.
5.
CrinesASDolowitzDP (2018) The oratory of Donald Trump. In: CrinesASHatzisavvidouS (eds) Republican Orators from Eisenhower to Trump. Palgrave Macmillan, pp.291–318.
6.
EngelJWodakR (2013) ‘Calculated ambivalence’ and Holocaust denial in Austria. In: WodakRRichardsonJE (eds) Analysing Fascist Discourse. European Fascism in Talk and Text. Routledge, pp.73–96.
7.
ErikssonKSimpsonBStrimlingP (2019) Political double standards in reliance on moral foundations. Judgment and Decision Making14(4): 440–454.
8.
FeldmanM (2019) On radical right mainstreaming in Europe and the US. In: BevelanderPWodakR (eds) Europe at the Crossroads: Confronting Populist, Nationalist and Global Challenges. Nordic Academic Press, pp.23–48.
9.
FraenkelE (2017 [1941]) The Dual State: A Contribution to the Theory of Dictatorship (ShilsE. A., Trans.) with an Introduction by MeierhenrichJ.Oxford University Press.
GillM (2024) Hypocrisy, authenticity, and the rhetorical dynamics of populism. In: SorlinSVirtanenT (eds) The Pragmatics of Hypocrisy. John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp.98–124.
12.
GillespieA (2020) Disruption, self-presentation, and defensive tactics at the threshold of learning. Review of General Psychology24(4): 382–396.
13.
GraffAKorolczukE (2022) Anti-Gender Politics in the Populist Moment. Routledge.
14.
HanssonS (2015) Discursive strategies of blame avoidance in government: A framework for analysis. Discourse & Society26(3): 297–322.
KellyCR (2020) Donald J. Trump and the rhetoric of ressentiment. Quarterly Journal of Speech106(1): 2–24.
17.
KienpointnerM (1991) Rhetoric and argumentation: Relativism and beyond. Philosophy & Rhetoric24(1): 43–53.
18.
KlempererV (2006) Language of the Third Reich: LTI: Lingua Tertii Imperii. A Philologist’s Notebook. Continuum.
19.
KłosińskaKRusinekM (2019) Dobra Zmiana, czyli jak się Rządzi Światem za Pomocą Słów. Znak.
20.
KrzyżanowskaNKrzyżanowskiM (2018) ‘Crisis’ and migration in Poland: Discursive shifts, anti-pluralism and the politicisation of exclusion. Sociology52(3): 612–618.
21.
KrzyżanowskiM (2018) Discursive shifts in ethno-nationalist politics: On politicisation and mediatisation of the ‘refugee crisis’ in Poland. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies16(1–2): 76–96.
22.
KrzyżanowskiM (2020) Discursive shifts and the normalisation of racism: Imaginaries of immigration, moral panics and the discourse of contemporary right-wing populism. Social Semiotics30(4): 503–527.
23.
KrzyżanowskiMKrzyżanowskaN (2022) Narrating the ‘new normal’ or pre-legitimising media control? COVID-19 and the discursive shifts in the far-right imaginary of ‘crisis’ as a normalisation strategy. Discourse & Society33(6): 805–818.
24.
KrzyżanowskiMKrzyżanowskaN (2024) Conceptual flipsiding in/and illiberal imagination: Towards a discourse-conceptual analysis. Journal of Illiberalism Studies4(2): 33–46.
25.
KrzyżanowskiMLedinP (2017) Uncivility on the web: Populism in/and the borderline discourses of exclusion. Journal of Language and Politics16(4): 566–581.
26.
KublikA (2024) PiS ma nowy Smoleńsk. Gazeta Wyborcza. November2. Available at: http://wyborcza.pl/ (accessed 2 November 2024).
27.
ŁętowskaE (2020a) In the article ‘Prof. Łętowska: Dyskusja o wyborach prowadzona jest w sposób oszukańczy. Szwindel, podmiana etykiety’ by D. Sitnicka, OKO.press, March23. Available at: https://oko.press/prof-letowska-dyskusja-o-wyborach (accessed 12 May 2024).
28.
ŁętowskaE (2020b) Prawo jako listek figowy albo etykieta. Ekonomista (2): 270–285.
LowenthalLGutermanN (2021 [1948]) Prophets of Deceit: A Study of the Techniques of the American Agitator. Verso Books.
32.
MényYSurelY (2002) The constitutive ambiguity of populism. In: MényYSurelY (eds) Democracies and the Populist Challenge. Palgrave Macmillan, pp.1–21.
33.
MuddeC (2004) The Populist Zeitgeist. Government and Opposition39(4): 541–563.
34.
MuddeC (2021) Populism in Europe: An illiberal democratic response to undemocratic liberalism (The Government and Opposition/Leonard Schapiro Lecture 2019). Government and Opposition56(4): 577–597.
35.
MuddeCKaltwasserCR (2012) Populism: Corrective and threat to democracy. In: MuddeCKaltwasserCR (eds) Populism in Europe and the Americas: Threat or Corrective for democracy?Cambridge University Press, pp.205–222.
36.
MusolffA (2012) The Study of Metaphor as Part of Critical Discourse Analysis. Critical Discourse Studies9(3): 301–310.
PelinkaA (2018) Identity politics, populism and the far right. In: WodakRForchtnerB (eds) The Routledge Handbook of Language and Politics. Routledge, pp.618–629.
39.
PerssonTRolandGTabelliniG (1997) Separation of powers and political accountability. The Quarterly Journal of Economics112(4): 1163–1202.
40.
PrzeworskiA (1991) Democracy and the Market: Political and Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America. Cambridge University Press.
41.
ReisiglM (2014) Argumentation analysis and the discourse-historical approach: A methodological framework. In: HartCCapP (eds) Contemporary Critical Discourse Studies. Bloomsbury, pp.67–96.
42.
ReisiglM (2018) The discourse-historical approach. In: FlowerdewJRichardsonJE (eds) Routledge Handbook of Critical Discourse Studies. Routledge, pp.44–59.
43.
ReisiglMWodakR (2016) The discourse-historical approach (DHA). In: WodakRMeyerM (eds) Methods of Critical Discourse Studies, 3rd edn.Sage, pp.23–61.
44.
RheindorfMWodakR (2020) Building ‘Fortress Europe’: Legitimizing exclusion from basic human rights. In: RheindorfMWodakR (eds) Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Migration Control. Multilingual Matters, pp.116–147.
45.
RydgrenJ (2018) The Radical Right: An introduction. In: RydgrenJ (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of the Radical Right. Oxford University Press, pp.1–13.
46.
SchotelB. (2021). Administrative law as a dual state. Authoritarian elements of administrative law. Hague Journal on the Rule Law13: 195–222.
47.
TeeleDLKallaJRosenbluthF (2018) The ties that double bind: Social roles and women’s underrepresentation in politics. American Political Science Review112(3): 525–541.
48.
ToulminSE (1958). The Uses of Argument. Cambridge University Press.
49.
UhlmannELPizarroDATannenbaumD, et al (2009) The motivated use of moral principles. Judgment and Decision Making4(6): 479–491.
50.
Van DijkTA (1992) Discourse and the denial of racism. Discourse & Society3(1): 87–118.
51.
Van DijkTA (2006) Discourse and manipulation. Discourse & Society17(3): 359–383.
52.
Van DijkTA (2018) Socio-cognitive discourse studies. In: FlowerdewJRichardsonJE (eds) Routledge Handbook of Critical Discourse Studies. Routledge, pp.26–43.
53.
Van DijkTA (2024a) Discourse and Ideologies of the Radical Right. Cambridge University Press.
54.
Van DijkTA (2024b) Ideology and populism of the reactionary right. In: PattersonKJHidalgo-TenorioE (eds) Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Discourses of Extremism, 1st edn. Routledge, pp.16–31.
55.
Van EemerenFH (2018) Argumentation Theory: A Pragma-Dialectical Perspective. Springer.
WodakR (2001) The discourse-historical approach. In: WodakRMeyerM (eds) Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis. Sage, pp.63–94.
60.
WodakR (2015) The Politics of Fear: What Right-Wing Populist Discourses Mean. Sage.
61.
WodakR (2019) Entering the ‘post-shame era’: The rise of illiberal democracy, populism and neo-authoritarianism in Europe. Global Discourse9(1): 195–213.
62.
WodakR (2021) The Politics of Fear: The Shameless Normalization of Radical Right Discourse. 2nd ed.Sage.
63.
WodakR (2022) Shameless normalization as a result of media control: The case of Austria. Discourse & Society33(6): 788–804.
64.
WodakRDe CilliaRReisiglM, et al (2009) The Discursive Construction of National Identity. Edinburgh University Press.
65.
ZakariaF (1997) The Rise of Illiberal Democracy. Foreign Affairs76(6): 22–43.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
