New research from two of our team members, Julien Longhi (CY Cergy Paris Université) and Ana Yara Postigo-Fuentes (Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf), has been selected for presentation and publication at the 10th Congrès Mondial de Linguistique Française (CMLF 2026), one of the most prestigious gatherings in the field of French linguistics. Held every two years, the Congress brings together leading researchers from across the world. It represents a major opportunity for ARENAS to bring its findings on extremist narratives to a wider academic audience.
Their research has been published as an article, “De l’affaire Marine Le Pen au cas de l’immigration : stratégies discursives de culpabilisation et de victimisation,” which appears in SHS Web of Conferences (Volume 232, 2026), a peer-reviewed, open-access publication indexed internationally. Selection for this volume reflects the strength and relevance of ARENAS’s discourse analysis work within the broader study of political communication.
The research looks at how the same rhetorical roles, victim and guilty party, get assigned in very different political contexts. The authors examine how Marine Le Pen and her team responded to her recent legal conviction, positioning her as the target of an unjust system rather than someone found guilty. They also analyse how immigration is framed online, particularly on X, as a threat to French citizens, casting the public as victims in need of protection.
Drawing on linguistic analysis of press coverage and a large body of social media posts, the authors trace how language choices, from legal terms like “condemnation” and “ineligibility” to emotionally charged words like “threat” and “mobilisation,” are used to shift blame and build sympathy. They also show how references to institutions such as justice, the rule of law and democracy are mobilised strategically, sometimes to defend, sometimes to accuse.
This research offers a clear, evidence-based look at how victimhood and guilt are constructed in public discourse, work that speaks directly to ARENAS’s core mission of understanding and countering extremist narratives across Europe.