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This paper studies the final statements (“golden minutes”) of televised electoral debates in Spain between 1993 and 2019. The methodology is adjusted to the cognitive analysis of discourse, analyzing three pragmatic indicators that could reveal an evolution in three stages of Spanish politics: the bipartisan phase (1993-2011), an adjustment phase (2011-2015) and a multiparty phase (2015- 2019). The discursive spaces dependent on the predicative strategy, the predominant illocutionary force, and the use of superstructures are analyzed. It is concluded that, for the three phases, the variables referring to the use of enunciative persons (which points to the introduction of the ethos of discourse), and the recourse to speech acts of expressive illocutionality (which reinforce the introduction of the pathos) are especially relevant. These preponderances are reinforced by a high level of rhetorical elaboration and a preference for enumerative structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]