Remigration, Reconquista, Regime Change: The Language of the New Right

This article examines the linguistic strategies of the new right—a key plank in their metapolitical platform designed to reshape cultural and political discourse. Drawing on Victor Klemperer’s analysis of Nazi language, it traces the persistence of fascist rhetoric in contemporary right-wing movements, whether in MAGA promises of “retribution” or in European calls for “reconquest.” Against this transatlantic backdrop and with studies of fascist agitation by critical theorists from the mid-twentieth century as its guide, the article focuses on two key terms developed in recent books by the Austrian identitarian Martin Sellner. Reconquista invokes a medieval Christian lineage to promote ethnonationalism and Islamophobia, while remigration redefines deportation as a putatively ethical project to enforce assimilation and reverse multiculturalism. These terms, part of the new right’s self-described “lexical house-to-house combat,” are designed to shift the limits of the sayable, normalizing völkisch concepts and hollowing out democratic values, even as these are invoked for antidemocratic ends. Despite protests, the AfD’s adoption of remigration in its platform and its electoral success signal the mainstreaming of such rhetoric, underscoring the new right’s ascendance in weaponizing liberal democracy against itself.