Inflate the soufflé or the "new art" of political speech in Spain

Of this famous message of Charles de Gaulle "France is not alone" (June 18, 1940) or "I have a dream" of Martin Luther King (August 28, 1963) until, by example, the famous sentence of Julio Anguita: "The resignation is asleep" (February 23, 1999) or the one that is all the rage: "Yes, we can", adaptation of "Yes, we can", many political messages were history was heard and many scholars explored the ins and outs of the oratory.

An art A whole art of seduction. It is to reach the listener's conscience, to obtain his acquiescence and his vote. And even more so, it is necessary to elaborate and disseminate – to submit – a political speech, or better, an electoral discourse.

Aristotle and Plato, Varro with his grammar and Nebrija later, Port Royal, structuralism and generativity, Saussure and Chomsky, devoted pages to elucidate the function of language – undoubtedly – social, its intentionality and purpose.

The purpose of the publicly transmitted discourse language is to issue information to convince the recipient of the act of communication that constitutes the political speech. Speech that generally addresses issues of interest to citizens as members of a society and, therefore, must be argumentative and deliberative, that is, it must adopt decisions that offer the public cohesive and coherent way.

We might wonder what our speakers want. Neither more nor less than modify the knowledge of the interlocutor or make him react in a certain orientation.

But … he can not convince? Quintilian baderted that the field of the oratory consisted of act and not indeed and Cicero insisted on eloquence. Both advocated "ars bene dicendi", a definition which, as we can see, does not differ from the one currently proposed by the Royal Spanish Academy: the art of saying well, of giving to written or spoken language a sufficient efficiency to delight, persuade or move.

There is a long way to go to reach this moment of emotion and empathy. It is advisable to design a chain that gives weight and strength to the speech. From the shadows, one invents, dispositio and elocutio until they reach the actio: the machines are put in place to elaborate and to select ideas, materials that follow a certain line, with convincing and refutative elements which punctuate the outline of the speech. even that of the challenge of the arguments of the adversary.

And everything is organized in a structured way: you must "seduce" the public until the end, seduce him.

We have linguistic artillery, the loading of many rhetorical figures that give the speech a singular aspect: rehearsals, questions or arrests to the public (where applause is expected), a sham implication to hide the "I of the speaker. in a committed "you" … The irony acquires a preponderant role if it consists in discrediting the adversary, to whom the famous pejorative expressions are almost insulting and offensive.

When delivering the speech, the speaker should be vigilant and pay particular attention to the expression in all its possible facets. Appearance, voice modulation and body language must be consistent with the content.

Our politicians have studied it very well, especially after watching the two televised debates.

Pablo Casado, with a very studied image, puts on negative expressions of great repercussion, strewn with another historical phrase, combining the "I" with a "we" between future and present: "we want to speak less", " we will approve a law devoting freedom of choice. "

However, Albert Rivera attacks his rivals with a very expressive language, charged with pejorative reproaches. Appearing a little more agitated than his rivals, his gestures look like a story that covers the podium: he directs the movements from one side to the other and fixes the point of view from the front.

Five moments of debate on April 22 at RTVE.

For his part, Pedro Sánchez is more contained in his expressions and gestures: resounding and determined, he turns away from the arena to modulate the voice while marking time of silence, without grandiloquent movements or grin with an aggressive face. He dominates a speech in an impersonal tone to involve the vast majority of participants and uses the plural to launch the collective commitment.

On the contrary, Pablo Iglesias, with a frowning gesture, sometimes gives lectures and scolds the others, and marks his speech with a first insistent person.

We begin with the principle that every speech a speaker makes is taken by him and he is responsible for the statement.

We know that politics has always been known as a mbad show, a theater, which speaks a lot, which says little, "partridge stunned" … In short, practice what the French call the "language of wood": language in wood, cardboard, sell smoke or inflate the soufflé.

This attitude is not reprehensible if the sender and the addressee, the political speaker and the general public know the rules of the game – almost agreed and established – and accept them together. In this way, there is no cheating or cardboard, no one is deceived nor thinks to give him a hare.

The politician who presents himself to his fellow believers adopts the clear and firm will to ensure his vote. Thus, during the election period, election protagonists – politicians – face each other verbally, making use of persuasion and controversy. as rhetorical techniques.

The candidate, anxious to make a good impression among the electors, seeks to accredit the image of the "me" while appealing to "the other", either to improve their position or to reach the point of view. one of the three goals that define political discourse. : make the citizen vote, vote X and not vote Y.

We detect how they express their ideas by embellishing and inventing language with synonyms, with their own opinions and those of others, with detours or circumlocutions …, entanglement incomprehensible and obscure for the vast majority: "the language of wood, the soufflé ".

And if that does not convince … confuse!

María Pilar Úcar VenturaAssociate Professor at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Translation and Interpretation and Multilingual Communication, Pontifical University of Comillas