The re-election of Nayib Bukele: an analysis from the press discourse and the concept of controversy

Abstract

2024 was an election year for El Salvador. On February 4, president, vice president and deputies of the Senate were elected. While on March 3, mayors, municipal councils and members of the Central American Parliament. This article aims to answer the question: How were the categories of dichotomization, discredit of the adversary and ideological polarization developed in the public speeches about the presidential re-election of Nayib Bukele? Two concepts were used at a theoretical-methodological framework: polemical discourse from the vision of Ruth Amossy (2017) and the Critical Discourse Analysis of Van Dijk (2005). The research is based on a qualitative paradigm and an inductive analysis, with empirical material that corresponds to press releases, institutional positions, tweets and statements by actors involved. It was concluded that the re-election controversy was manifested in a speech about illegality and unconstitutionality, by the opposition sectors and as a continuity of mandate, by allied sectors; this in an environment of apparently reasonably clean and competitive democratic elections.