Den franska och europeiska identitetskrisen - En narrativanalys av Emmanuel Macrons respektive Marine Le Pens politiska tal

In 2015, both France and the European Union were shaken in both the societal and the political plane by the grand influx of migrants who migrated across the European borders. Ever since, the gap between the EU optimists and the right populists has grown. The aim of this paper is to study how the two candidates for the French president election constructed their narratives about national identity in their public speeches during 2017. With use of narrative analyses as a method, combined with theories about the national identity, the speeches have been analysed and compared to show how the politicians have used certain words to describe the role of France in international politics. The results show that the politicians indeed have used the narrative of a national identity in different ways when delivering their speeches about the role of their nation, and its responsibilities in relation to the rest of the world. The study can contribute with deepening the understanding of how politicians across Europe use classic narratives when distributing their messages to their people