Cultural Wars in Polish Right-Wing Sovereignist Discourse on European Integration.

The politicisation of European integration observed in Poland since 2004 has stemmed from two interconnected processes. First, the strategic party competition between the two dominant political formations - Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (PiS, Law and Justice) and Platforma Obywatelska (PO, Civic Platform) - positioned attitudes toward European integration as a key axis of political views (Góra, Thevenin, Zielińska 2026). Second, right wing parties, including PiS, have consistently employed discursive strategies that juxtapose a “pure” and authentic Polish culture with the alleged moral “decline” of the West, thereby seeking to delegitimise the project of European integration (Góra, Mach 2010). Over time, these strategic discursive approaches evolved into a broader cultural war narrative, reframed as an ideological struggle and embedded within the domestic political arena. This narrative has come to dominate political competition in Poland’s increasingly polarised environment, frequently drawing on othering frames that scapegoat European bureaucracies and Western partners—particularly Germany and France. This shift has become a critical element of a new sovereigntist vision of European integration pursued by PiS. This paper adopts a long-term perspective (2004–2025) to trace the transformation of identity and values based discourse into a fully developed cultural war framework directed against the West. Empirically, the paper offers a systematic qualitative analysis of cultural frames articulated in parliamentary debates by right wing parties in relation to the European Union. Theoretically, it contributes to ongoing debates on how cultural war dynamics restructure and solidify discursive patterns surrounding European integration, gradually reinforcing entrenched and polarised public attitudes.