The discursive construction of a new reality in Olaf Scholz’s Zeitenwende speech

Abstract

This article applies Bakhtinian dialogism and the concept of centripetal-centrifugal struggle to critical discourse studies to analyse how powerful and marginalised discourses are brought into competition in political language to justify paradigm changes. I analyse German chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Zeitenwende (‘watershed’) speech, which he gave as a response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, announcing a radical armament programme and change in foreign policy, a paradigm shift that had previously been unthinkable in German politics. Based on a qualitative analysis using the Appraisal Theory strategies Attitude and Engagement, I identify how Scholz aligns himself with particular powerful discourses, centring some powerful ones and marginalising others, constructing an existential threat for Germany, the so-called watershed, a new situation which casts his policies of German armament as without alternative. The paper demonstrates the strength of the analysis of dialogically contractive and expansive strategies in critical discourse studies.