Speaking doom about the EU.

Since the 2000s, the European Union has become increasingly polarised issue in the Dutch political debate. This paper analyses whether that polarisation has also led to the use of doom scenarios regarding the EU. Partially inspired by the concept of securitisation, a doom scenario is defined as a speech act that claims an issue to be an existential threat to the survival of the state, or to the state's capacity to provide its basic functional services. By combining a discourse analytical approach with content analysis, we find that the use of doom scenarios regarding the EU with an existential threat are few in number. However, once the definition is relaxed to include other threats as well, an upward trend can be observed. Interestingly, doom scenarios with a Europhile character are mostly used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]