The “conversation on Austria”: A televised representation of Austria’s internal condition after the national-conservative “Wende”

In February 2000, the Austrian Christian conservative People’s Party ÖVP and the right wing nationalist Freedom Party (under its notorious leader Jörg Haider) formed a new government in Austria. This political change resulted not only in heavy political protests in Austria, but also caused bilateral sanctions of the other 14 EU member states against the new government. In March 2000, Austria’s public broadcasting company organised a media discussion between representatives of the then government, opposition politicians, representatives of the Austrian civil society and ‘ordinary people’ to establish a ‘national consent’ towards the sanctions. Drawing upon insights from appraisal theory, social semiotics and critical discourse analysis, this paper demonstrates how non-verbal situational aspects as well as discursive features of this program are used by the programme makers to create an overall impression of ‘Austria as a victim’ and how dissenting voices are silenced.