Appeals to Consensus and Partisan Politics in Parliamentary Discourse on the Pandemic

Abstract

This article explores constructions of consensus and unity and their potential implications on partisan politics and democratic decision making in parliamentary discourse on the management of the COVID-19 pandemic in Greece. The analytic corpus consists of transcripts of three debates on COVID-19 management in the Greek parliament, conducted in the period from April 2020 to October 2021. Analysis using tools and concepts of rhetorical and discursive psychology indicated that consensus was constructed as agreement on hard data, as compliance with health experts, and as national unity, and it was counterposed to partisan politics. Nevertheless, at the same time, appeals to consensus constituted a resource mobilized in the service of partisan politics, as both government and opposition parties appealed to the need of agreement in order to warrant their position and to ward off the position of opponents. The rhetoric of consensus, however, included the seeds of disagreement, since while its necessity was collaboratively accomplished, its parameters and boundaries were challenged. The implications of these findings for democratic governance and political decision making are pinpointed.