'Die Soziale Heimatpartei': A Slogan of the Austrian Freedom Party as an Example of Concealed Hybridity

In political rhetoric the construction and use of hybrid concepts often serve a strategic purpose and, hence, hybridity goes hand in hand with other rhetorical strategies of multiple addressing. “Calculated ambivalence” is such a strategy which tries to address different audiences with opposing ideological standpoints and expectations. It serves to convey at least two contradictory messages in one utterance. Hybrid concepts can be used in a similar vein: Different or even contradictory terms put together into an oxymoron are able to attract ideologically opposed audiences. Its rhetorical effect relies on different mind sets that lend specific meaning to words and are able to make sense of contradictory terms. This paper suggests that hybrid concepts which serve the purpose of oppositional addressing sometimes conceal their hybridity. They are not composed of contradictory terms, but the single terms of the composition have contradictory meanings to different audiences. This will be discussed taking the example of the slogan “die soziale Heimatpartei” (the social homeland party) of the Austrian Freedom Party. The term “Heimat” (homeland) refers to the alpine landscape of Austria and the neighborhood the individual Austrian lives in, thus it attracts the average citizen. On the other hand, in right-extremist discourse “Heimat” is applied on Austria as a place of living in order to reject the notion of Austria as a nation.