Populism, politics and war: Ukraine President Zelenskyy’s war-time speeches

Abstract

The role of political leaders in shaping news coverage, especially those who engage in “populism”, is the subject of much academic debate. The language of US President Donald Trump is seen by many as “a populist assault” on liberal democracy, Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen to use a “state populism” narrative to appeal to his public, while Jeremy Corbyn’s “For the many, not the few” slogan establishes what has been described as a clear discursive frontier between a populist “us” and “them.” Building on Laclau’s (2005) position that populism establishes a discursive frontier between “us” the people and powerful “Others”, and van Leeuwen (1996), Van Dijk (1995) and Fairclough (2003)’s work on how social actors and social actions are represented, this paper shows how populism is articulated in a time of war. Leaning on Multimodal Critical Discourse Studies, we reveal how Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy not only constructs populist discourses verbally and visually to appeal to domestic and foreign supporters, but also how he draws on the West’s long-standing perception of Russia as a dangerous Other. These discursive strategies legitimate the continuation of the conflict whilst leaving little discursive room for a peaceful resolution.