Reconstructing the Truth: Anti‐Immigrant Discourses of Right‐Wing Populist Parties in Türkiye

This study examines the ways in which anti‐immigrant right‐wing populist discourse is produced in Türkiye within the framework of population politics. The discourses of the Victory Party and the Good Party were analyzed within the framework of Wodak’s (2015a) discourse‐historical approach; a dataset consisting of parliamentary group speeches and press releases covering the periods of the 2023 general elections and the 2024 local elections was used. The research findings reveal that, although both parties perceive immigration as a threat, they diverge significantly in terms of political positioning, populist antagonism, and threat framing. In the context of political positioning, the Victory Party positions itself as a radical “single‐issue party” focused on anti‐immigration politics; the Good Party adopts an institutional and legalistic language. In terms of populist antagonism, the Victory Party deploys both horizontal and vertical antagonism, targeting immigrants, the ruling party, and the mainstream opposition alike, whereas the Good Party focuses primarily on vertical antagonism. In its threat framing, the Victory Party constructs immigration as a militaristic existential crisis, equating it with demographic collapse, cultural invasion, and security threats, whereas the Good Party develops its narrative around security, economic, and labor issues in a more institutional language.