Abstract
Despite the undeniable importance of the speeches that the King of Spain addresses to the citizenry every Christmas Eve, sociologists have barely dealt with its study in a systematic way. This paper aims to remedy this lack, exploring how these speeches reflect the main public concerns of Spain, regularly collected by the Center for Sociological Research in their barometers. To this end, a highly quantitative analysis content technique has been applied. The survey results reveal that references to the concerns occupy slightly less than half of the total length of the speeches, and the ratio of the various issues is quite uneven. This observed imbalance seems to respond to a monarchical strategy of institutional legitimation and maintenance of the status quo.
Highlights
Extended abstract Since the restoration of the monarchy in Spain, in 1975, it has become customary for the king to give a nationally televised Christmas Eve speech
This article aims partly to alleviate some of that shortage. This is achieved using an unusual approach: the linking of such messages with surveys about the main issues in Spain, collected by the Center for Sociological Research in their monthly barometers. Since these barometers represent the most reliable way to get to know the state of public opinion, and Christmas messages are the king’s most personal and free public words, the ultimate goal of this study is to confront these two approaches —public opinion versus monarchy— on the same subject: the main issues of the country
The main issues in Spain are inserted as codes in the Atlas.ti software, implementing the precoding process characteristic of this technique
Summary
Desde la reinstauración de la monarquía en España en 1975, y siguiendo una tradición implantada a nivel nacional por Francisco Franco durante la dictadura (García Pujol, 2016; Palacio, 2002), ha devenido en costumbre que el titular de la Corona dirija un mensaje televisado a la población la noche del 24 de diciembre. No son infrecuentes las comparaciones entre años correlativos; sin embargo, apenas existen estudios sobre el contenido textual de este tipo de alocuciones regias que tengan en cuenta una perspectiva diacrónica amplia. P.) y los mensajes navideños constituyen las palabras públicas más personales y libres del rey (Gonzalo, 2001; Medina López, 2016; Ventero Velasco, 2010), el objetivo principal del estudio radica en averiguar si la monarquía es, en este tipo de comparecencias, sensible a la opinión pública y a las vicisitudes de la ciudadanía, manifiestas en la pregunta sobre los principales problemas del país contenida en los barómetros. Entre los mismos figuran los antecedentes de los mensajes navideños, su finalidad, el recurso en ellos a diversas estrategias comunicativas y su temática, amén de unas breves notas sobre las clasificaciones de las alocuciones regias y las características del discurso político e institucional
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