Political emotions and digital political mobilization in the new populist parties: the cases of Podemos and Vox in Spain

Abstract

This text examines the role of emotions as a strategy of populist mobilization into a risk context, presuming that populism is a political style useful for any kind of political actor, but especially suitable for ‘entrepreneur’ and ‘low-cost’ parties. The article compares the cases of Podemos and Vox, the two populist parties that emerged successfully into the electoral scene after the Spanish movement of the Indignants (or 15M movement). Combining literature with an exploratory qualitative analysis of their websites and social media accounts, the paper argues that emotional persuasion is widely used by the two both populist parties’ framings, but in quite different ways, according to their cute different ideological projects. Moreover, the text holds that emotions are not exclusive of the populist nor the social protests, but they are a feature of current democracy and even intrinsic to representative democracy from its origins. The article analytical approach conceives populism as a political style useful for any actor, but more so for “entrepreneurial” and “low-cost” parties. It compares the cases of Podemos and Vox, which emerged successfully on the electoral scene after the 15-M movement. Combining literature with qualitative analysis of websites and social media, it extracts original information showing that emotional persuasion is widely used by the strategies of the two populist parties, but in different ways, depending on their different audiences and ideological projects. The findings are consistent with previous studies that argue that emotions are not exclusive to populist parties or certain social movements, but rather a feature of contemporary democracy. They also agree with a hypothesis put forward by the authors: appealing to emotions has been a core component of political communication in representative democracy since its very origins.