Homo Nationalis and the Moralisation of Belonging: Rethinking National Identity in Austria

ABSTRACT This article examines how national identity and belonging in contemporary Austria are articulated through moral rather than ideological vocabularies. Analysing presidential, party, media and social media discourse surrounding the 2025 National Day, it conceptualises the homo nationalis as the moral citizen who embodies the nation's virtues of moderation, decency and responsibility. The study introduces a dual‐register model—everyday convivial and ritual‐civic—to explain how seemingly distinct or even opposite sets of traits are, in fact, intertwined: Everyday love of comforts, hospitality, common sense and modesty are moralised as civic ideals of rationality, neutrality and restraint. Using the Discourse‐Historical Approach, the paper traces representation, argumentation and narrative dimensions in public discourse to show that this moral nationalism fuses inclusion and exclusion: Appeals to virtue stabilise consensus while legitimising subtle boundaries of belonging. Austria's case illustrates how small‐state nationalism endures in contemporary Europe by intertwining affective ease with civic morality.