Competitive Discourses among the Valencian Right Wing: Communication and strategy in the 2019 regional elections

Abstract

The 2019 regional government election in The Valencian Country led to a new panorama on the Right. For the first time, there were three political parties competing for votes. In addition, the notoriety gained by the Far Right created a new political scene, posing a challenge to other parties. This paper analyses how the Partido Popular, Ciudadanos and Vox managed a campaign in which they were both electoral opponents but also potentially future parliamentary allies. The research examines the performance and campaign discourse of these three parties based on content analysis of the coverage of two newspapers’ (Levante-EMV and Las Provincias). The study examines the preferred frames of reference, the main topics, the cultural resonances and the ideological frameworks chosen by these parties. The results showed that news on these parties stressed leadership style and strategy — issues that were highlighted in the parties’ discourses given that they resonate strongly with Conservative voters. The issues chosen by the Far Right had little impact on the messages put over by the majority parties. The presence of three rightwing parties meant each tried to differentiate itself from the others. Vox [the farthest on the right, reminiscent of France’s Front National] tried to distinguish itself from the more mainstream Partido Popular (PP), which in turn was forced to defend its position as the ‘institutional’ party of the right. Ciudadanos (Cs) was the right-wing party that spoke most often of potential co-operation among the three forces.