Dismantling European Values

Abstract

Abstract Since 2015, the mobilization of refugee and migrant populations towards the European Union has at times monopolised public debate, and the so-called ‘refugee crisis’ has put fundamental European values, such as solidarity, to the test. In this article, the authors focus on Greece with the aim of examining the extent to which manifestations of discriminatory discourses crop up in the discussion of the ‘refugee crisis’ in two mainstream news portals (i.e., Próto Théma and Efimerída ton Syntaktón) with different ideological orientations (i.e., center-right vs. center-left, respectively). In doing so, the authors specifically focus on the framing of the EU and its institutions as main actors in the management of the situation, showcasing how the discursive emergence of discriminatory attitudes in the context of the mainstream media discussing EU policy forms a solid argumentative basis on which European solidarity is continuously challenged.