Conceptual and Motivational Factors in French and Portuguese Political Discourse

The article explores the phenomenon of political discourse in its close connection with the national political culture. The relevance of the study lies in the need for a linguistic conceptualization of the ways of representing the linguistic worldview through the prism of global geopolitical challenges. The aim of the article is to identify the conceptual and motivational factors of French and Portuguese political discourse. The linguistic and political reality serves as a key space for shaping public consciousness and national identity, while also being an arena for the struggle for power and influence. This article presents an in-depth comparative analysis of the political discourse in France and Portugal during the period of geopolitical turbulence from 2022 to 2025. The study focuses on the relationship between the microstructures of political language and the macroprocesses of national political culture formation. Developing this approach, the author analyzes the mechanisms of verbalizing the concepts of “war”, “empire”, “colonialism”, and “freedom”. It is revealed that French political discourse (E. Macron, E. Philippe) is characterized by a strategy of externalizing the colonial experience, projecting it onto an external opponent in order to assert the universalist status of the Republic. At the same time, Portuguese discourse (M. Rebelo de Sousa, A. Santos Silva, and parliamentary parties) demonstrates an introverted strategy, where the interpretation of an external conflict is mediated by the reflection of one’s own historical trauma (“The Colonial War” and “The Carnation Revolution”). Within the practical scope of the contemporary international agenda, a sustained divergence in the foreign policy strategies of the nations analyzed is forecasted: while the French side will likely maintain its articulation of the necessity for Russia’s “strategic defeat” in its “imperial capacity”, Portuguese political discourse will remain centered on humanitarian concerns and the implementation of the right of peoples to self-determination.

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