The role of ideology in the Polish political debate over the 2015 migration crisis

The aim of this article is to reconstruct the main ideological assumptions present in the Polish political debate about the migration crisis in Europe in 2015. The article also poses research questions about the extent to which the ideological beliefs manifested by the participants in the debate posed a risk of distorting reality, as well as questions about the ways in which specific ideological beliefs were imposed on the public and political opponents. The main method used in the article is a qualitative discourse analysis based on elements of the mediation approach proposed by Tomasz Piekot. The identification of the main ideological assumptions present in linguistic political messages was conducted taking into account the generalised division between supporters and opponents of Polish participation in the relocation and resettlement mechanism established in 2015 at the forum of the European Union. The analysis was based on theoretical considerations concerning the concept of ideology, as well as the relationships between politics, ideologies, language, and political debate. The analysis shows that in the case of both of the principal sides of the political dispute on the topic addressed, there were simplifications, generalisations, metaphors and examples of hyperbole distorting the picture of reality caused by ideological assumptions. Both supporters and opponents of relocation and resettlement utilised ideologically motivated instrumental linguistic behaviours in order to achieve their assumed political goal. The issue of Polish participation in the relocation mechanism was automatically and excessively simplified by attempts to identify it with such issues as humanitarianism, security, and European solidarity.