Post-Truth Politics, Brexit, and European Disintegration

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter analyses the effect of post-truth on European disintegration, a process that led to the strengthening of Eurosceptic political parties and the Brexit referendum. This work has the twofold purpose of analysing the role of PPT in the Leave campaign and discussing its implications from a theoretical standpoint. The chapter consists of four parts. The first one includes an overview of the literature on European disintegration, Brexit, and post-truth; it also offers a conceptualisation of post-factual politics, discussing how the notion evolved and how it relates to misinformation. The second part consists of an analysis of the Leave campaign; it identifies the actors behind misinformation and their role before and during the referendum campaign. The third section is an empirical analysis of the discourse on Brexit, with a focus on factually ambiguous or incorrect statements. The ties between deception and politics are further analysed in the fourth part, attempting to describe to which extent, during a crisis, political actors can exploit pre-existing ideological forces to construct a specific narrative. The conclusion addresses the effectiveness of misinformation on the Leave campaign and whether a similar approach will play a more significant role in the ongoing debate on EU integration. The ambition of the chapter is to analyse misinformation as a tool to create consensus, looking at the actors employing it, its effectiveness, and its role as a causal factor in the Leave campaign and the process of European disintegration.