The Climate Emergency in the 2019 Spanish Electoral Debates: A Functional Analysis of the Candidates' Discourse
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doi:10.5477/cis/reis.175.129
The Climate Emergency in the 2019
Spanish Electoral Debates: A Functional
Analysis of the Candidates’ Discourse
La emergencia climática en los debates electorales españoles de 2019:
un análisis funcional del discurso de los candidatos
David Vicente Torrico
Key words Abstract
Climate Electoral debates are unmissable events for candidates and voters in
• Debate modern societies. In 2019, political leaders held a total of 5 debates
• Elections in Spain. To date, environmental policy has been largely forgotten
• Emergency in this type of event. However, the growing concern at the social,
• Spain media and political level means that there is a likelihood of them
being included in the campaign. This study starts with a content
analysis to identify the presence of environmental discourses in
electoral debates and applies Functional Theory and Framing Theory
to determine the content, form and framing used. The results showed
a progressive inclusion of the climate emergency into electoral
debates, described in terms of ideological confrontation and in
economic terms.
Palabras clave Resumen
Clima Los debates electorales representan una cita ineludible para candidatos
• Debate y electorado en las sociedades modernas. En España se han celebrado
• Elecciones un total de 5 encuentros entre los líderes políticos durante el año 2019.
• Emergencia Hasta la fecha, la política medioambiental ha sido la gran olvidada
• España en este tipo de eventos. Sin embargo, la creciente preocupación a
nivel social, mediático y político permite augurar su incorporación a
la campaña. Nuestra investigación parte del análisis de contenido
para detectar la presencia de discursos medioambientales durante
los debates, y aplica la teoría funcional y el framing para determinar el
contenido, la forma y el encuadre utilizado. Los resultados demuestran
una progresiva incorporación de la emergencia climática a los debates
electorales, descrita en términos de enfrentamiento ideológico y en
clave económica.
Citation
Vicente Torrico, David (2021). “The Climate Emergency in the 2019 Spanish Electoral Debates: A
Functional Analysis of the Candidates’ Discourse”. Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológi-
cas, 175: 129-144. (http://dx.doi.org/10.5477/cis/reis.175.129)
David Vicente Torrico: Universidad de Valladolid | david.vicente.torrico@uva.es
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 175, July - September 2021, pp. 129-144130 The Climate Emergency in the 2019 Spanish Electoral Debates: A Functional Analysis of the Candidates’ Discourse
Introduction sults were compared to the findings in
similar studies for other countries world-
The year 2019 saw a rebirth of environmen- wide, in order to assess the degree of ac-
tal awareness. It was also a turbulent time ceptance of ecological awareness among
in politics, with two general elections in ba- national politicians.
rely seven months. Social movements had
taken a leading role at a time of unprece-
dented climate action. Theoretical framework
The driving force of a new generation,
The political discourse of modern demo-
which is aware of the Earth’s limits and of
cracies cannot be understood without the
the need to urgently meet this challenge,
involvement of television, a great ally that
has attracted the interest of the media. This
has allowed candidates to reach out to
resulted in an exponential increase in the
broad sectors of the population practically
media space given to climate change in
from its birth. This phenomenon was bap-
2019 (Fernández, 2019), and promoted im-
tised by Sartori as video-politics or tele-
portant changes in its news coverage.
vised politics (1998: 66) and has brought
The climate summits held in New York profound changes to parties’ campaign
and Madrid; the fires in the Amazon, Aus- strategy. While still resorting to the tradi-
tralia, California and the Canary Islands; tional methods such as using posters, ha-
the record-high temperatures in Europe ving a presence in public squares, sen-
during that summer; the floods in vari- ding election communications and holding
ous areas of the Mediterranean basin; rallies, public events are only performed
and the ecological collapse of the Mar where cameras are present. This is based
Menor, among others have been promi- on the understanding, as Semetko stated
nently featured in the news stories in re- (1996: 254), that most voters relate to par-
cent months. ties through television, which becomes the
This climate for political change and the political agora (Ramonet, 1997).
profound changes in the media and so- However, the one campaign event to
cial sphere beg the question as to whether which the parties devote special attention
the candidates to government in Spain in- is the electoral debate, a dialectical bat-
cluded the climate emergency into their tle between the candidates where they
electoral discourse for the first time in make their proposals known to the elec-
Spanish history. torate directly, without the filter imposed
The study begins with a state-of-the- by the media in their daily coverage. These
art review on electoral debates in Spain, events are greatly anticipated by the pop-
which serves as a starting point to de- ulation and attract viewers in the millions.
limit the object of analysis: the electoral They are therefore crucial for parties to ob-
debates held in 2019. By using functional tain votes, especially from those members
analysis and framing theory, the speeches of the public who are undecided about
made by the different participants is stud- which candidate they will support (Mapelli,
ied to check whether this topic was in- 2010).
cluded in the agenda of the political nar- In Spain, a total of 13 televised elec-
rative in a social and media context prone toral debates have been held between the
to awareness of the climate emergency, candidates in a run up to a general elec-
and if so, what kind of discursive param- tion (Quintas Froure, González Neira and
eters were used. Finally, the Spanish re- Conde Vázquez, 2020: 86), the last three
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 175, July - September 2021, pp. 129-144David Vicente Torrico 131
of which took place in 2019, in the context ing of a new electoral debate was a mile-
of marked political instability. This figure stone in the history of Spanish television.
is comparatively small considering those With audience figures of nearly 13 million,
countries with a greater tradition in holding it was the most viewed event to date (Bar-
debates (Herrero and Benoit, 2009), and lovento, 2019).
may account for the scarcity of research in The emergence of new political forma-
the field by Spanish academics. tions in 2015, most notably Podemos and
Although some authors have attrib- Ciudadanos, represented the end of the
uted the birth of this new format in Spain classic “face-to-face” event, and the explo-
to the “face-to-face” debates between ration of new, more dynamic television for-
Felipe González and José María Aznar in mats which included more participants. In
May 1993 (Quintas Froufe and Quintas this way, the new parties sought to become
Froufe, 2010; Castromil and Rodríguez, legitimised through the cameras of Atres-
2019), it was in the early years of democ- media, despite the absence of the then
racy in Spain that the first televised po- President of the Government, Mariano Ra-
litical battles were held. At that time, a joy, who was only prepared to debate with
television show called La Clave hosted the leader of the opposition.
an eight-way electoral debate, although Given the breakdown of the two-party
the two main candidates to office, Felipe system and the institutional deadlock in
González (PSOE) and Manuel Fraga (AP), Spain in 2019, two electoral campaigns
chose to send their deputies (Paniagua and five televised debates have been held.
Rojano, 2004). It would not be until 2008, This has faced a growing climate of dis-
with José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero as can- trust and political weariness among the
didate for re-election and Mariano Rajoy population (Arceo, Álvarez and Serrano,
as opposition leader, that a political de- 2020: 32), whose interest in debates has
bate would be broadcast on television notably decreased, as can be seen in Fig-
again. After almost 15 years, the hold- ure 1 below:
FIGURE 1. Viewing figures of electoral debates on Spanish television
Sánchez - Casado - Rivera - Iglesias - Abascal El Debate 4N (04/11/2019) 8,600,000
Sánchez - Casado - Rivera - Iglesias Debate RTVE (22/04/2019) 8,800,000
Rajoy - Sánchez - Rivera - Iglesias Deb4te 2016 (13/06/2016) 10,400,000
González - Aznar El Debate Decisivo (31/05/1993) 10,500,000
Zapatero - Rajoy 2008 Debate (03/03/2008) 11,900,000
Rubalcaba - Rajoy 2011 El Debate (07/11/2011) 12,000,000
Zapatero - Rajoy 2008 Debate (25/02/2008) 13,000,000
0 2,000,000 4,000,000 6,000,000 8,000,000 10,000,000 12,000,000 14,000,000
Source: STATISTA_ES (2019).
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 175, July - September 2021, pp. 129-144132 The Climate Emergency in the 2019 Spanish Electoral Debates: A Functional Analysis of the Candidates’ Discourse
In addition to the obvious weariness whether the rise in environmental aware-
caused by the holding of the general elec- ness in the year of the election (CIS, 2018;
tion twice in one year, with abstention European Commission, 2019; Real Instituto
rates rising to nearly 40% (Micovic, Alsina Elcano, 2019) and the narrative transforma-
and Anaya, 2020: 190), the loss of inter- tions driven by the media ecosystem have
est in the most recent debates could also triggered the inclusion of the climate emer-
be related to the use of a tightly-controlled gency in the discourse of government can-
structure, in which the thematic blocks are didates.
agreed in advance, speaking time is limited
and candidates’ contributions are more like
a succession of prefabricated speeches Objectives and hypothesis
than a real confrontation of ideas, with lit-
tle room for improvisation (Castromil and
The main objective that has guided this re-
Rodríguez, 2019; Mapelli, 2010; Soengas
search, as noted in the introductory chap-
Pérez, 2009).
ter, is to identify whether the climate emer-
The prior negotiation of the topics of dis- gency was included in the discourse of the
cussion has been a characteristic of these candidates to the presidency of the Spa-
debates, which has been at the root of the nish Government during the electoral de-
little attention paid to environmental deg- bates before the general election held in
radation over the past decade, as dem- 2019.
onstrated by the studies by Martínez Alier
Specifically, the arguments put forward
(2011) and Gutiérrez Hurtado (2016). On the
by each of the participants will be ana-
contrary, when debates are organised, pref-
lysed in order to identify which function
erence is clearly given to issues that entail
ideological confrontation (Castromil and Ro- predominates in the construction of the cli-
dríguez, 2020). This contrasts with electoral mate emergency narrative; this will include
processes in English-speaking countries, counting the number of attacks, defences
where the environmental crisis is highly and proposals made by the different politi-
controversial, and opinions are still very po- cal leaders, in accordance with the selected
larised. In this regard, some studies have methodology.
analysed meetings in the UK (Carter, 2015), A framing analysis will be used to pro-
Canada (Jones, 2008; Houle, 2014), the US vide a snapshot of the political debate sur-
(Mathiesen, 2016) and Australia (Gascoigne, rounding the climate emergency, taking into
2008; Gurney, 2014), which have pointed to account the content of the messages. The
a partisan use of the climate issue (Carter, focus will be on whether the candidates’
2006). discourse addresses this problem from the
The literature highlights two major as- point of view of causes, impacts and/or so-
pects: on the one hand, the greatest en- lutions.
vironmental threat of our time is generally The initial hypothesis is that the de-
absent from the topics of debate; and on bates held in 2019 in Spain saw the de-
the other, the paucity of academic publi- finitive inclusion of the climate crisis into
cations on this issue, as the elections that the electoral debates, with a marked pre-
have been analysed correspond to periods dominance of proposals as opposed to re-
in office that have already come to an end. proaches and a mainly economic focus;
The study proposed here seeks to provide it prevailed over proposals related to the
an update for the state of the art on elec- consumption model, healthcare and secu-
toral debates in Spain, but also to ascertain rity.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 175, July - September 2021, pp. 129-144David Vicente Torrico 133
Methodology content of their discourse could refer to
their attributes and qualities, such as pre-
The methodological design of this study paredness, honesty, and leadership, or
started with a content analysis (Berelson, focus on political aspects, such as past
1952) of the speeches made by the can- events, future plans and general goals.
didates for the Spanish presidency during In addition, this theory provides a sec-
the electoral debates held in 2019: Debate ond level of analysis for each candidate’s
a 4 (RTVE, 22 April 2019), El debate deci- speeches, which could be in the form of
sivo (Atresmedia, 23 April 2019), Debate a proposal or acclaim, an attack on their
a 7 (RTVE, 1 November 2019), Debate a 5 opponent, or a defence and reparation of
(Academia, 4 November 2019) and La úl- their image.
tima oportunidad (La Sexta, 7 November Given the controversial nature of the
2019). climate crisis, Framing Theory (Goffman,
The broadcasts were compiled, and all 1974) was included in the methodological
the arguments related to the climate cri- design. This approach reveals the proc-
sis were transcribed in full, whether they ess by which an issuer conveys a particu-
were presented in the presentation slot, lar view of the facts, supporting their argu-
in the golden minute, or in any of the the- ment with ideas that provide a particular
matic blocks. A total of 64 fragments were sense of reality. The classification pro-
obtained, as part of 32 speaking slots or posed by Snow and Benford (1992) was
speeches. They were catalogued accord- used to study the different frames con-
ing to the debate in which they appeared, tained in the candidates’ narratives. This
the time when they were produced, their classifies the different discourse frames by
duration, and the participant who uttered distinguishing between diagnosis, progno-
them. sis, and motivation.
The treatment of the selected speeches Given that the focus of the study was
was based on two theories about the ob- on the political representation of the cli-
jectives set out in the previous section: mate emergency, the categories pro-
the Functional Theory of Political Cam- posed by Vicente Torrico (2019: 125) were
paign Discourse and Framing Theory or used. In these, the author identifies the
Framing. discourse about the (anthropogenic and
Functional Theory relies on the re- natural) causes and impacts of climate
search by the American William L. Be- change (on the ice, ocean, and land sur-
noit, who has dedicated a large part of his face) using the diagnostic function; the
academic life to the analysis of electoral provision of solutions (mitigation, preven-
speeches during the different elections tion, and reaction) using the prognostic
held in the United States. Perhaps for function; and the qualities, skills and abili-
this reason, as Téllez, Muñiz and Ramírez ties of the speaker (experience, proposals
(2010: 257) pointed out, its implementa- and values) with the motivation of the is-
tion outside of North America is still rare. suer of the message.
Benoit (2007) started from the idea that Table 1 below shows the methodolog-
campaign messages allow candidates to ical instrument that was specifically de-
distinguish themselves from the other al- signed to meet the needs of the study’s ob-
ternatives, to stand out as the most de- ject: the presence, function and framing of
sirable option for the largest number of the discourse on the climate emergency in
voters, and thus to win elections. The the electoral debates.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 175, July - September 2021, pp. 129-144134 The Climate Emergency in the 2019 Spanish Electoral Debates: A Functional Analysis of the Candidates’ Discourse
TABLE 1. Template for the analysis of messages
Item code Debate analysed Candidate (Party) Time codes
Past achievements
Acclamation Diagnostic
Future plans
Discourse Form Attack Frame Prognostic
Political ideals
Defence Motivation
Qualities and attributes
Source: Developed by the author.
Results Chronology and duration of climate
emergency messages
This section discusses the results obtained Firstly, the chronological analysis of the re-
in the study of the contributions made by sults revealed a progressive inclusion of the
political representatives in the electoral de- climate crisis into the agendas of the diffe-
bates held in 2019, taking into account their rent political formations. Most of the spee-
date and duration, their content and form ches detected in this area took place in the
and, lastly, the framework selected to refer meetings organised in November, as can be
to the climate emergency. seen in the following Figure.
FIGURE 2. Chronology of climate emergency speeches
700
12 600
Number of contributions
10 500
Duration (seconds)
8
400
6
300
4
200
2
100
0 0
22/04/2019 23/04/2019 01/11/2019 04/11/2019 07/11/2019
Source: Developed by the author.
During the first electoral process, a to- The debate in which the climate cri-
tal of 4 speeches were counted, with an sis had the greatest presence was the
overall duration of less than one minute. In one organised by Televisión Española on
contrast, 29 speeches on the climate crisis 1 November. All the spokespersons of the
were made in the run-up to the re-run of the seven parliamentary groups participated.
elections, which means that more than 16 The inclusion of a specific block dedicated
minutes were devoted to this issue. to climate change encouraged dialogue
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 175, July - September 2021, pp. 129-144David Vicente Torrico 135
on this issue, with a total of 12 speeches grammes, at around 2.5 % of the broad-
of 9 minutes in length. In contrast, the de- casting time.
bate with the lowest number of study units With regard to the distribution of time ac-
was the one held on 22 April at the head- cording to political groupings, it should be
quarters of the Academia de las Ciencias noted that only the Partido Socialista Obrero
y las Artes de Televisión de España, the Español, the Partido Popular, Ciudadanos
first of the series analysed, in which only and Unidas Podemos participated in all of
one of the candidates mentioned the cli- the programmes. They therefore had a clear
mate crisis, for just 26 seconds. The av- advantage over the other parties analysed,
erage length of the debates analysed was which had less television exposure. For ex-
around 2 hours, while the average time ample, Vox only participated in the November
dedicated to discussing the climate emer- debates, and the leaders of Esquerra Repub-
gency barely exceeded 3 minutes, so it licana de Catalunya and the PNV were only
was only tangentially present in the pro- featured in the Debate a 7.
TABLE 2. Speeches and duration by political party
22/04/2019 23/04/2019 01/11/2019 04/11/2019 07/11/2019 TOTAL
PSOE 1 (0:26) 1 (0:02) 2 (0:50) 3 (1:50) 2 (0:45) 9 (3:53)
PP 0 (0:00) 0 (0:00) 2 (1:10) 3 (0:46) 1 (0:30) 6 (2:26)
Cs 0 (0:00) 1 (0:17) 2 (0:50) 0 (0:00) 2 (0:45) 5 (1:52)
UP 0 (0:00) 1 (0:13) 2 (1:00) 2 (0:45) 2 (0:45) 7 (2:43)
VOX — — 2 (2:30) 1 (0:15) 1 (1:15) 4 (4:00)
ERC — — 1 (1:45) — — 1 (1:45)
PNV — — 1 (0:55) — — 1 (0:55)
Source: Developed by the author.
Table 2 above shows that, despite not at- climate emergency in all the debates ana-
tending the first two debates, Vox was the lysed. The opposition parties, that is, the
political party that spent the most time talk- Partido Popular and Ciudadanos, did not
ing about the climate, with a total of 4 min- address this issue in two of the debates
utes, closely followed by the Partido Social- studied here, and their speaking time was
ista Obrero Español, which was the one with significantly lower in the overall count.
the highest number of speeches (9). The na- Beyond the quantitative data, which
tionalist parties only spoke about this issue in makes it possible to establish a hierarchy
one of their speaking slots, but their speech in terms of the parties’ interest in including
was longer than the average of the other the climate emergency into their agendas,
parties’ messages, which was around half a the electoral debates had a predetermined
minute. The speech given by Gabriel Rufián structure that had two particularly impor-
(ERC) was particularly remarkable, which as tant points: the introduction and the closing
almost two minutes long in a single block. speech, also known as the “golden minute”.
Moreover, the Partido Socialista Obrero It is therefore necessary to point out the dif-
Español was the only party to address the ferences in this respect.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 175, July - September 2021, pp. 129-144136 The Climate Emergency in the 2019 Spanish Electoral Debates: A Functional Analysis of the Candidates’ Discourse
The first group to refer to the climate Content and form of climate emergency
emergency outside the body of the de- messages
bate was Unidas Podemos, at the meeting
held on 23 April. They would later repeat In terms of message content, the study
this strategy, appealing to their desire for a shows the predominance of political issues
green country in the closing minute of the (90%), well ahead of party qualities and attri-
last debate. The Partido Socialista Obrero butes (10%), as candidates mainly opted for
Español made a similar appeal during the acclaim (75%) as a way of addressing vo-
introduction stage of the third debate. ters, as can be seen in the following image.
FIGURE 3. Classification of messages by content and form
2%
2%
Content 11%
11% Form
50% 23%
Attributes and qualities (7) 19%
19% 23% Acclaim (48)
50%
Political ideals (12) Attack (15)
Past achievements (13) Defensa (1)
20% 20% 75%
75%
Future plans (32)
Source: Developed by the author.
The attribution of qualities such as respect ship in combating the climate crisis. The other
for the environment has become evident in parties that displayed their environmental val-
the debates only prior to the re-run of the ues on this point were the Partido Popular
general election. It was mainly used by Vox and Ciudadanos, with 1 speech each.
(3), a party which participated for the first time The regional parties and Unidas Po-
in this type of event and used it as a form of demos, for their part, did not refer to the at-
self-introduction to its potential voters. tributes and qualities of either their leaders
The Partido Socialista Obrero Español, or the values of the groups they represent
which held the presidency on both occasions, in any of their speeches, as the following
used 2 speaking slots to showcase its leader- Table shows.
TABLE 3. Distribution of speeches on attributes and qualities
Attributes
and PSOE PP Cs UP VOX ERC PNV TOTAL
qualities
Acclamation 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 3
Attack 1 1 0 0 2 0 0 4
Defence 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Source: Developed by the author.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 175, July - September 2021, pp. 129-144David Vicente Torrico 137
The party headed by Santiago Abascal The Partido Socialista Obrero Español
(Vox) used this function to attack left-wing opposed this idea. Sánchez pointed out
parties and denounce the ideological ap- that the fight against climate change is one
propriation of the climate change agenda of his party’s top priorities and accused the
and the lack of knowledge about environ- capitalist economic model of causing the
mental issues, to ultimately define itself as a collapse of the Mar Menor ecosystem.
“conservative party” (note the pun).
María Jesús Montero (PSOE): Pedro Sánchez’s
Iván Espinosa de los Monteros (Vox): I am as- government has shown clear signs that climate
tonished that we could not talk about illegal im- change is a priority for us.
migration because we were going to talk about
climate change. It is something that is always im- Pedro Sánchez (PSOE): We are seeing it in the
posed by the left, and the left is not talking about collapse of the economic model implemented by
climate change. the Partido Popular in the Mar Menor in the Mur-
cia region, where it has been in power for more
The politicisation of the climate emer- than two decades.
gency was also pointed out by the spokes-
persons of the Partido Popular and Ciu- The next function, in terms of the number
dadanos, Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo and of times it was used, was to do with politi-
Inés Arrimadas, respectively, both of whom cal ideals and general goals desirable for
denounced that it was interpreted as a left- the population. These types of claims were
wing issue and contrary to progress. found in all political debates, particularly in
the meeting with the parliamentary spokes-
Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo (PP): On climate
change, which they said everyone is now getting
persons held at the beginning of November
very flashy about, is actually the new agenda of the (6) and in the meeting with the candidates of
left with the new environmentalism. It is very good. the 5 major parties (3).
The appeal to major environmental ob-
Inés Arrimadas (Cs): It is perfectly possible to
jectives was used on at least one occa-
make the care of the environment compatible
with economic growth [...]. And no, you don’t
sion by all parties, although it was the Par-
need to be a communist and hinder economic tido Socialista Obrero Español (5) that most
growth, or to say, as some have said, that capi- often used this function in its speeches,
talist economic growth is incompatible with envi- ahead of Unidas Podemos (2), as the fol-
ronmental protection. lowing statistics show.
TABLE 4. Distribution of speeches on political ideals
Political
PSOE PP Cs UP VOX ERC PNV TOTAL
ideals
Acclaim 5 1 1 2 1 1 1 12
Attack 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Defence 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Source: Developed by the author.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 175, July - September 2021, pp. 129-144138 The Climate Emergency in the 2019 Spanish Electoral Debates: A Functional Analysis of the Candidates’ Discourse
Political leaders agreed on this point, Pedro Sánchez (PSOE): We live in the middle of
and noted that the climate emergency is a climate emergency. It is no longer possible to
real, as it is already being felt in our envi- talk about the economy, consumption, healthcare,
ronment. They all called for immediate ac- and employment without talking about the limits
of the environment.
tion so that both the country and the planet
become green and sustainable. There were Irene Montero (UP): I am here because I have
therefore no differences in the discourse three children and I want them to live in a coun-
around the general objectives. try where they can breathe clean air [...]. We are
going to continue fighting for Spain to be a femi-
Gabriel Rufián (ERC): The films that many of us
nist country, for it to be an ecological country.
have been watching for years always start in the
same way, with a scientist who issues a warning, Issues related to hard politics, that is, con-
and nobody listens. Well, they are here, they are structions based on past performance and
here. We only have one planet, and sometimes proposals to be developed for the next term,
we act as if we had two or three.
were at the core of the debate, and their pres-
Inés Arrimadas (Cs): Yes, there are many, many ence was a constant in all the blocs analysed.
people concerned about the quality of the air With regard to policies implemented in
their children breathe. Of course, climate change the past, the discourse revolved around par-
is something that we are already seeing in our ties with experience in government. Thus, the
country and on our planet. Yes, there are many Partido Socialista Obrero Español and the
people who are concerned about the overuse of
Partido Popular dominated this section with
plastic.
5 references each, while the regionalist par-
Aitor Esteban (PNV): I believe that there is no way ties and Ciudadanos, which had a presence
back in the great green transformation; in fact, I in city councils and regional coalition govern-
think that Europe will be promoting it, and I be- ments, only dedicated one speaking time slot
lieve that we must do so. to this issue.
TABLE 5. Distribution of speeches on past achievements
Past
PSOE PP Cs UP VOX ERC PNV TOTAL
achievements
Acclaim 4 1 1 0 0 0 1 7
Attack 1 4 0 0 0 1 0 6
Defence 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Source: Developed by the author.
The most commonly used function to Pedro Sánchez (PSOE): During the last 15 mon-
refer to the policies that had been imple- ths, the Spanish Government has done unprece-
mented was through acclaim (7), by prais- dented and very powerful work to fight climate
ing the government’s performance. The so- change. We have approved an Energy and Cli-
cialist discourse showcased the valuable mate Plan [...]. And we have approved a fair tran-
sition strategy for the mining basins and for the
measures adopted during their 15 months
thermal power stations that are at risk of closure
in government, such as the Plan de Energía
and their areas.
y Clima (Energy and Climate Plan) and the
Estrategia de Transición Justa (Fair Transi- The debate on past performance also
tion Strategy). served as a spearhead for attacking political
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 175, July - September 2021, pp. 129-144David Vicente Torrico 139
rivals. It is within this context that the words the opposition for having blocked his Cli-
of the Partido Popular’s speakers should be mate Emergency Law, while Adriana Las-
interpreted, as they responded to their op- tra (PSOE) recalled the benefits of Madrid
ponents by pointing out that their party was Central, now in question after the change of
responsible for the major environmental ad- party in the capital’s local government.
vances to date. Gabriel Rufián (ERC): We proposed a Climate
Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo (PP): You should Emergency Law, as has already been presented
start by recognising that it was the PP in 1996, in the Parliament of Catalonia, and an attempt
just look at the number of years that have elap- was made to establish it, which, by the way, was
sed, that was the first to create a Ministry of the taken to the Constitutional Court by the PP, PSOE
Environment, which was headed by Isabel To- and Ciudadanos.
cino. And it was in 1997, in Spain, also with the
Adriana Lastra (PSOE): One of those measures
PP in power, that party you say is so anti-green,
was Madrid Central, and here the three right-wing
that the Kyoto Protocol was signed. So, let’s
parties together wanted to reverse Madrid Central.
start with that, shall we? That would be the basic
This was a big mistake, as all international organi-
point to start discussing this issue.
sations have said, and therefore, what I ask you to
Pablo Casado (PP): There are no lessons you do is to rectify and commit yourselves to rectify it
for the sake of the health of the people in Madrid.
can give us in environmental matters, Mr. Sán-
chez. We created the first Ministry of the Envi- Plans for the future notably present in
ronment, we ratified Kyoto, we ratified Paris, we the discourse produced by the different po-
ratified the UN Millennium Development Goals. litical formations (32), and they were partic-
We are the ones who have enabled, for example,
ularly prominent in the debates in which the
Mr. Arias Cañete to be the world leader in the
main candidates did not participate, that is,
fight against climate change.
those held on 1 and 7 November, with the
Blocked proposals were also included parties’ deputies occupying the lecterns in
in this space. Gabriel Rufián (ERC) blamed front of the cameras.
TABLE 6. Distribution of speeches on future plans
Future
PSOE PP Cs UP VOX ERC PNV TOTAL
plans
Acclaim 5 3 3 9 0 1 5 26
Attack 0 1 2 0 2 0 0 5
Defence 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
Source: Developed by the author.
The most proactive group was Unidas companies. This point was shared by the
Podemos (9), followed by the Partido So- socialist party, which described it as a dis-
cialista Obrero Español (6). Podemos made suasive measure and were committed to
the creation of a public energy company its developing the plans already approved in
flagship measure. It alluded to this measure previous months; they highlighted the ben-
in all the meetings held in November. Po- efits in terms of job creation and support for
demos also stressed the need to impose areas threatened by the change in the en-
green taxation, which punishes polluting ergy model, such as the mining basins.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 175, July - September 2021, pp. 129-144140 The Climate Emergency in the 2019 Spanish Electoral Debates: A Functional Analysis of the Candidates’ Discourse
Pablo Iglesias (UP): And finally, Article 128, the we can sanction them. But you are first and fore-
real patriotic article that everyone forgets: all the most focused on sanctioning rather than helping.
wealth of the country will be subordinated to the
general interest. What do we propose to do? A Ana Pastor (PP): This is a responsibility of our ge-
public energy company that looks the electricity neration towards future generations, and that is
oligopoly in the face, serves to lower electricity why I believe that we should reach a great agree-
bills, and serves to undertake an ecological tran- ment at parliamentary level to respect the environ-
sition by relying solely on renewables. ment and to make a transition, but always a res-
pectful transition.
Irene Montero (UP): And those companies that
are polluting should pay. Inés Arrimadas (Cs): We need national agree-
ments to talk about the environment. For 40 years
María Jesús Montero (PSOE): Environmental we have seen the PP and PSOE say one thing in
taxation that acts as a deterrent to behaviour opposition and then never do anything in govern-
that is harmful to people’s health. ment. We need national agreements.
Pedro Sánchez (PSOE): We want to promote a
fair ecological transition, I insist, in all those pro-
vinces and regions that are going to be affec- Frames used to refer to the climate crisis
ted by the paradigm shift in the energy model
[...] and thus specifically avoid depopulation and The study of the frames used by the partici-
face the demographic challenge. pants in the electoral debates held in 2019
All the opposition parties in the cham- in Spain can provide an accurate snapshot
ber considered that the new tax proposals of how the climate crisis was defined by the
would be a threat to the economy and em- political leaders.
ployment, and they agreed on the need to The electoral discourse addressed this
reach a national consensus on the climate situation proactively. Proposing solutions
emergency. occupied most of the screen time, spe-
cifically 61%. The second frame accord-
Albert Rivera (Cs): Mr. Sánchez has forgotten
ing to the number of repetitions was mo-
that the PSOE’s attack on diesel will benefit the
rich. 17 million people, families, drivers [...]. Pre- tivation, that is, a party’s position on the
pare your pockets, citizens, because if Sánchez threat and its predisposition to face it,
gets to power, he will put his hand in your poc- which amounted accounted for 23% of the
kets. speeches made. The diagnostic frame was
also prominent; this frame, related to how
Iván Espinosa de los Monteros (Vox): In Spain candidates pointed to the origin and con-
there are 17, 17 automobile production plants
sequences of the climate crisis, which were
and many ancillary industries that make their li-
identified in 14% of the cases, as can be
ving from this. There are hundreds of thousands
of jobs that depend on this [...] and the mere
seen below.
explanation that you are going to ban diesel Looking at the classification of these ap-
because of ecological measures, theoretically, proaches by political formation, it can be
is generating unemployment, is generating jo- seen that the parties with the greatest parlia-
blessness. You, in your ignorance, every time mentary representation were also the most
you speak, you make the price of bread rise. likely to take a stance on the climate emer-
Rocío Monasterio (Vox): It turns out that those gency. The Partido Socialista Obrero Español
you are going to penalise are precisely those and the Partido Popular (4) accounted for
who have no savings, the weakest, the working more than half of the motivation frame. How-
classes, and Vox’s role is protecting all of them. ever, all political formations participated in
First let’s help them make the transition and then the construction of this frame at some point.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 175, July - September 2021, pp. 129-144David Vicente Torrico 141
TABLE 7. Distribution of frames by political party
Frame PSOE PP Cs UP VOX ERC PNV TOTAL
Motivation 4 4 1 2 2 1 1 15
Diagnosis 3 2 1 1 2 0 1 10
Prognosis 11 5 6 8 2 2 5 39
Source: Developed by the author.
The discourse on motivation was marked support in the energy transition, which ranged
by the dialectical confrontation between the from the promise made by the government
two main blocs that make up the Spanish to invest in areas affected by the reduction in
political landscape. Conservative parties carbon emissions, such as the mining basins,
positioned themselves as defenders of the to the demand for subsidies for the renewal of
capitalist economic model and opposed the cars, promoted by Vox.
appropriation of the climate agenda by their Concerning transport-related emissions,
opponents. In contrast, the progressive par- Unidas Podemos and the PNV defended
ties echoed social mobilisations and were the use of the railway as the backbone of
committed to a change of energy paradigm the country, while Esquerra Republicana de
to ensure sustainable development. Cataluña advocated the promotion of local
When discussing the diagnosis of the cli- businesses.
mate crisis, the public representatives em- Finally, the leaders of the two main par-
phasised the current consumption model,
ties stressed the need to adopt national
which is responsible for the high level of
agreements on environmental issues that
pollution, the abuse of plastic, the inefficient
allowed them to face the climate challenge
use of transport, and the overcrowding of
together, a demand supported by the can-
cities and tourist areas. Only Vox blamed
didates of Ciudadanos and Esquerra.
these problems on the current legislation,
where bureaucratic hurdles prevent efficient
use of resources.
Discussion and conclusion
There was also a high degree of con-
sensus on the impact of the climate crisis The results confirmed the starting hypothe-
among the different political parties. They ses: that the climate emergency has been
considered it a cross-cutting problem, affect- included in the discourse of electoral deba-
ing consumption, employment and health.
tes broadcast on television as an economic
The proposed solutions, contained in the issue that raises important conflicting ques-
prognostic frame, were presented in eco- tions between right-wing and left-wing blocs.
nomic terms. Green taxation became the main
The main findings that support these as-
battle horse of the five majority parties, as the
sertions are presented below, and they are
measures announced by Unidas Podemos
compared with the relevant literature.
and the Partido Socialista Obrero Español
met with opposition from the right-wing par- H1. The chronological study showed that
ties, who argued that taxes will generate more the climate crisis was gradually intro-
poverty and unemployment. Another point duced in the Spanish political agenda.
was raised concerning the economic sphere, In the last elections, held in Novem-
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 175, July - September 2021, pp. 129-144142 The Climate Emergency in the 2019 Spanish Electoral Debates: A Functional Analysis of the Candidates’ Discourse
ber, the number of speeches on this the fact that acclaim was the most used
issue increased sevenfold, from 4 in technique, as Herrero and Benoit (2009:
the previous elections to 29 in the last. 70) noted, attacks from the conserva-
This development is also evident in tive bloc were evident in all content va-
terms of time devoted to this topic, as riants, especially about plans for the fu-
the cumulative number of speeches ture. The identification of this strategy
grew exponentially from one minute in used by the opposition coincided with
April to 16 minutes in the most recent the findings by Téllez, Muñiz and Ramí-
debates. rez (2010: 256).
In addition to the statistical data, the In addition, the appropriation of the fight
qualitative study reflected the grea- against the climate emergency by left-
ter importance of the climate emer- wing parties was specifically raised in the
gency in the repeat election, as this is- debates analysed here, in an exercise of
sue appeared once in the introductory political polarisation that was consistent
speech and twice in the “golden” or with Ryan’s (2017: 283) proposals.
closing minute. Moreover, of two of the H3. The most recurrent frame in political
debates held in November organised discourse is prognosis, and it appea-
by television channels, included a spe- red to be linked to the economic va-
cific block on climate change, thereby riable. This framework brings Spanish
reinforcing the importance of the cli- politics in line with debates in Canada
mate crisis among politicians and their (Houle, 2014) and Australia (Gurney,
voters. 2014), where the dialectical dispute has
This increased attention to environ- taken the form of a referendum on the
mental issues is new for Spain’s elec- economic and labour proposals by the
toral debates since climate change had party in power whether past or future.
been largely absent from recent cam- It remains to be seen whether the po-
paigns, as Gutiérrez (2016: 142) po- litical, media and social interest in this
inted out. For this reason, despite the issue will be maintained in the next de-
significant delay compared to other bate. Even if it is no longer in the candi-
Western democracies, the inclusion dates’ agenda, the climate emergency
of this issue in the political discourse is certainly here to stay.
must be considered a successful step
in actions related to the climate emer-
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ACCEPTANCE: June 25, 2020
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 175, July - September 2021, pp. 129-144doi:10.5477/cis/reis.175.129
La emergencia climática en los debates
electorales españoles de 2019: un análisis
funcional del discurso de los candidatos
The Climate Emergency in the 2019 Spanish Electoral Debates:
A Functional Analysis of the Candidates‘ Discourse
David Vicente Torrico
Palabras clave Resumen
Clima Los debates electorales representan una cita ineludible para candidatos
• Debate y electorado en las sociedades modernas. En España se han celebrado
• Elecciones un total de 5 encuentros entre los líderes políticos durante el año 2019.
• Emergencia Hasta la fecha, la política medioambiental ha sido la gran olvidada
• España en este tipo de eventos. Sin embargo, la creciente preocupación a
nivel social, mediático y político permite augurar su incorporación a
la campaña. Nuestra investigación parte del análisis de contenido
para detectar la presencia de discursos medioambientales durante
los debates, y aplica la teoría funcional y el framing para determinar el
contenido, la forma y el encuadre utilizado. Los resultados demuestran
una progresiva incorporación de la emergencia climática a los debates
electorales, descrita en términos de enfrentamiento ideológico y en
clave económica.
Key words Abstract
Climate Electoral debates are unmissable events for candidates and voters in
• Debate modern societies. In 2019, political leaders held a total of 5 debates
• Elections in Spain. To date, environmental policy has been largely forgotten
• Emergency in this type of event. However, the growing concern at the social,
• Spain media and political level means that there is a likelihood of them
being included in the campaign. This study starts with a content
analysis to identify the presence of environmental discourses in
electoral debates and applies Functional Theory and Framing Theory
to determine the content, form and framing used. The results showed
a progressive inclusion of the climate emergency into electoral
debates, described in terms of ideological confrontation and in
economic terms.
Cómo citar
Vicente Torrico, David (2021). «La emergencia climática en los debates electorales españoles de
2019: un análisis funcional del discurso de los candidatos». Revista Española de Investigaciones
Sociológicas, 175: 129-144. (http://dx.doi.org/10.5477/cis/reis.175.129)
La versión en inglés de este artículo puede consultarse en http://reis.cis.es
David Vicente Torrico: Universidad de Valladolid | david.vicente.torrico@uva.es
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 175, Julio - Septiembre 2021, pp. 129-144130 La emergencia climática en los debates electorales españoles de 2019: un análisis funcional del discurso de los candidatos
Introducción climática, el relato político ha apostado por in-
corporar este asunto a su agenda y, en caso
El año 2019 ha supuesto, además de un de ser así, bajo qué tipo de parámetros dis-
ejercicio convulso en lo político, con dos cursivos. Por último, presentamos una com-
procesos electorales en apenas siete me- parativa de los resultados obtenidos en clave
ses, el renacer de la conciencia ecologista. nacional frente a los hallazgos presentados
Los movimientos sociales han liderado una en estudios similares que se han desarrollado
reivindicación en favor del medioambiente en otras latitudes del planeta, a fin de com-
sin precedentes en nuestra historia. probar el grado de aceptación de la concien-
cia ecológica entre los políticos nacionales.
El empuje de una nueva generación, cons-
ciente de los límites del planeta y de la nece-
sidad de afrontar de manera urgente este Marco teórico
desafío, ha atraído el interés de los medios
de comunicación, cuyo espacio dedicado al El discurso político de las democracias mo-
cambio climático ha crecido de manera expo- dernas no puede entenderse sin la necesaria
nencial durante el último ejercicio (Fernández, participación del medio televisivo, un gran
2019), y ha impulsado importantes modifica- aliado que, prácticamente desde su naci-
ciones en su cobertura informativa. miento, ha permitido a los candidatos acer-
carse a amplios sectores de la población.
Las cumbres del clima celebradas en
Este fenómeno, bautizado por Sartori como
Nueva York y en Madrid; los incendios del
vídeo-política o política televisada (1998: 66),
Amazonas, de Australia, de California y de
ha supuesto un profundo cambio en la es-
Canarias; los récords de temperatura re-
trategia de campaña de los partidos, que,
gistrados en Europa durante el verano; las
sin abandonar los métodos tradicionales,
inundaciones en varios puntos de la cuenca
como la pegada de carteles, su presencia en
del Mediterráneo; el colapso biológico del
las plazas públicas, el envío de propaganda
Mar Menor, etc., han protagonizado el relato
electoral o los mítines electorales, condi-
medioambiental durante los últimos meses.
cionan estos actos a la presencia de una
Teniendo en cuenta este clima de cam- cámara, conscientes de que, como afirma
bio político, pero también de profundas Semetko (1996: 254), la mayor parte del
transformaciones en el ámbito mediático y electorado se relaciona con los partidos a
social, cabe preguntarse si los candidatos través de la televisión, que se convierte en el
al Gobierno de España han incorporado, ágora central de la política (Ramonet, 1997).
por primera vez en la historia, la emergen- No obstante, si hay un acontecimiento de
cia climática a su discurso electoral. campaña al que las formaciones dedican una
En esta investigación comenzamos con especial atención ese es la celebración del
una revisión del estado de la cuestión en debate electoral, un combate dialéctico en-
torno a la celebración de los debates elec- tre los candidatos en el que dan a conocer
torales en España, que sirve como punto sus propuestas sin el filtro que establecen los
de partida para delimitar nuestro objeto de medios de comunicación en la cobertura dia-
análisis: los debates electorales celebrados ria. Estos eventos generan una importante
durante el año 2019. A través del análisis expectación entre la población, logrando con-
funcional y de la teoría de los encuadres, pro- gregar a audiencias millonarias, por lo que re-
ponemos el estudio de los discursos pronun- sultan cruciales para conseguir obtener el
ciados por los diferentes participantes para voto de los ciudadanos, especialmente entre
comprobar si, en un contexto social y mediá- aquellos que aún no se hayan decantado por
tico favorable a la lucha contra la emergencia ningún candidato (Mapelli, 2010).
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 175, Julio - Septiembre 2021, pp. 129-144You can also read
