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This article analyzes and compares the following of Twitter users during the two electoral debates of the general elections in Spain in April and November 2019. Through the collection of the official hashtags #ElDebateDecisivo (970,706 tweets) and #DebateElectoral (821,521) respectively from 9 am on the day of the debate until 2 am the following day, we analyzed the polarity and basic emotions of the messages posted on the social network using algorithms with R software. A network theory study was also carried out to determine each account's affiliation to each group. The results show a polarization in the network, with well-defined groups with hardly any relationship with other groups of different ideologies. It is also observed that the entry of a new player, Vox, into the second debate completely alters the rest of the centerright parties, which end up seeing it from a much more negative perspective. This entry does not involve major changes among the left-wing parties, but it does mean an increase in fear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]