The argumentation in the investiture debate's speeches of Pedro Sánchez and Pablo Casado (Spain, January 4th, 2020)

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyze the political speeches pronounced by Pedro Sánchez (Spanish Socialist Party, PSOE) and Pablo Casado (Spanish Popular Party, PP) during the investiture debate which took place in Spain on January 4th, 2020. Politicians gathered together in the Spanish Congress of Deputies (Madrid) in order to discuss agreements amongst different political parties to solve the situation Spain was passing through back in that moment, since no party reached an absolute majority to rule after general elections were called on up to three different occasions. In a situation of political turmoil, the representatives of the main political forces try to build attractive arguments in order to convince and persuade people. To understand the real scope of these discourses, it is necessary to proceed to an analysis with an interdisciplinary methodology. Therefore, contributions from the New Rhetoric are considered (Toulmin), also some from the communication sciences (types of proposition used, depending on whether they respond to a question of fact, value or politics) and social psychology (considering the primacy and recency effects, and the five steps of Monroe's motivated sequence).