Observing the political debate across Europe in real time, a striking feature of the changes in political discourse since the political crisis around migration started in 2015 is the shift in the normative boundaries. Xenophobic rhetoric that used to be unacceptable has become acceptable, while liberal values that used to be widely accepted are now questioned. Ruth Wodak’s chapter in this volume is an important contribution to understanding how the discourse is shifting, particularly in the case of Austria.

Working in a non-governmental organisation focused on rights and values, we interact with a large range of policy actors, from elected politicians (MEPs and national ministers) to officials in the EU institutions (Commission, Parliament, Council) and national diplomats – both in Brussels and in national capitals. Our impression from these interactions is that most policy actors were initially shocked at the rhetoric about migration used in 2015 and after by politicians such as Viktor Orban and Matteo Salvini. The political and policy elites at EU level generally adhere to the post-1945 and post-1989 liberal consensus around the values enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union. They have been educated and socialised into the principle that racism, antisemitism and other forms of xenophobia and discrimination are unacceptable in a liberal democracy, and most of them observed or were involved in the application of the Copenhagen conditions for EU membership to the countries that joined the Union in 2004 and 2007. The liberal values consensus remains strong at EU level, but policy actors are sensitive to the changes in politics at national level, not least because their job is to find where the consensus lies for agreement on policy at EU level.

We observe that these actors, like many others in politics across Europe, are getting used to the anti-migrant and anti-migration rhetoric used by a growing number of politicians, some of whom are now in government. A process of normalisation is taking place among these actors. They do not like the shift, and many feel a sense of personal moral outrage at the crossing of the normative boundaries, but they accept the change in political rhetoric as something that they cannot influence directly.