Between Pride and Anger: Emotional and Discursive Strategies in the 2024 European Elections in SpainEntre el orgullo y la ira: Estrategias emocionales y discursivas en las elecciones europeas de 2024 en España doxa.comunicación | nº 42, pp. 99-125 | 99January-June of 2026ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978How to cite this article: Sánchez-Marañón, I. and Rodríguez-Virgili, J. (2026). Between Pride and Anger: Emotional and Discursive Strategies in the 2024 European Elections in Spain. Doxa Comunicación, 42, pp. 99-125.https://doi.org/10.31921/doxacom.n42a2942Jordi Rodríguez-Virgili. Associate Professor of Political Communication at the University of Navarra and principal investigator of the group “Journalism, Political Communication and Democracy” [Journalism, Political Communication and Democracy] (PerComPolDe). He has been a Visiting Scholar at the Graduate School of Political Management at e George Washington University. In 2016 he was awarded the Award of Merit for Excellence in Teaching in Political Communication at the Victory Awards (e Georgetown University Conference Center, Washington D.C.). His most recent publications include articles in Media and Communication, Journal of Iberian and Latin American Research, Observatorio OBS, El profesional de la información, and KOME: An International Journal of Pure Communication Inquiry, as well as book chapters in leading publishers such as Routledge, Tecnos and Éditions L’Harmattan.University of Navarra, Spain [email protected]ORCID: 0000-0002-7952-5664Iván Sánchez-Marañón. MSc Political Science (Political Behavior) candidate at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He graduated in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Navarra, where he obtained the Scholarship for Talent in the Humanities. He has collaborated as a columnist in media such as Diario de Navarra and Navarra.com, and is a member of El Tablero Político, a platform for the dissemination of Political Science on social networks. He is part of Equipo Europa, a youth association dedicated to the promotion of the European Union and citizen participation. His main academic interest focuses on electoral behavior and political communication.London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom [email protected]ORCID: 0009-0002-0680-0490 is content is published under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License. International License CC BY-NC 4.0Recibido: 19/03/2025 - Aceptado: 30/06/2025 - En edición: 16/12/2025 - Publicado: 01/01/2026Resumen: Este estudio analiza el uso de las emociones y las narrativas en la comuni-cación política durante las elecciones al Parlamento Europeo de 2024 en España. A través de un análisis de contenido de los spots electorales (n=36) publicados en al menos tres de las cuatro redes sociales más relevantes (X, Facebook, Instagram y YouTube) de los principales partidos políticos (PP, Received: 19/03/2025 - Accepted: 30/06/2025 - Early access: 16/12/2025 - Published: 01/01/2026Abstract: is study analyzes the use of emotions and narratives in political communication during the 2024 European Parliament elections in Spain. rough a content analysis of the electoral spots (n=36) published in at least three of the four more relevant social media platforms (X, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube) of the main political

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100 | nº 42, pp. 99-125 | January-June of 2026Between Pride and Anger: Emotional and Discursive Strategies in the 2024 European Elections in SpainISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978doxa.comunicaciónPSOE, Sumar y Vox), se identican los distintos patrones en el empleo de emociones y narrativas en unas elecciones consideradas de segundo orden. Los resultados muestran diferencias signicativas en el empleo de las emo-ciones: mientras que los partidos de gobierno (PSOE y Sumar) utilizaron con mayor frecuencia el entusiasmo, los de la oposición (PP y Vox) recu-rrieron con mayor frecuencia a la ira. Además, se muestran diferencias relevantes en el uso de narrativas: los partidos de la oposición emplearon predominantemente el marco nacional, mientras que los partidos de go-bierno privilegiaron el europeo. Finalmente, este trabajo ayuda a constatar cómo las campañas electorales incrementan la polarización: mediante la asociación de emociones positivas con los simpatizantes del propio partido y negativas con los adversarios políticos.Palabras clave: Comunicación política; spots; videopolítica; campañas electorales; po-larización.parties (PP, PSOE, Sumar, and Vox), dierent patterns in the use of emotions and narratives are identied. e results show signicant dierences in the use of emotions: while governing parties (PSOE and Sumar) more frequently employed enthusiasm, opposition parties (PP and Vox) relied more often on anger. Additionally, relevant dierences are observed in the use of narratives: opposition parties predominantly used the national narrative, whereas governing parties prioritized the European one. Finally, this study helps conrm how electoral campaigns contribute to increased polarization, by associating positive emotions with a party’s own supporters and negative emotions with political opponents.Keywords: Political communication; spots; videopolitics; electoral campaigns; polarization.1. IntroductionIn recent decades, the role of emotions in politics has gained increasing relevance in research in political science and electoral communication (Dader, 2024). Various studies have shown that emotions play a fundamental role in the formation of political attitudes, decision-making, and voter mobilization (Jaráiz et al., 2020). Political parties have learned to capitalize on this phenomenon, incorporating emotional appeals into their communication strategies with the aim of inuencing public perception and maximizing their electoral impact.In this context, electoral campaigns have evolved toward increasing personalization of politics and greater dependence on social networks, which, combined with the increase in political polarization, has favored the strategic use of emotions (Metz et al., 2019; Ernst et al., 2019). However, the way dierent political parties employ these strategies is not uniform and responds to factors such as their ideology, their position in the party system, and the type of election at stake (Crespo-Martínez et al., 2022; Ridout & Searles, 2011; Mayer & Nguyen, 2021).In the case of European Parliament elections, these have been characterized by their second-order nature (Reif & Schmitt, 1980; Tenscher & Maier, 2009), which implies that both citizens and political parties perceive them as less relevant than national elections. Consequently, they usually register higher levels of abstention and their electoral campaigns tend to focus on national policy issues, rather than on debates about European aairs (Sádaba et al., 2016; Zurutuza & García-Ortega, 2012).Spain is no exception to this dynamic (Berganza, 2008). European elections in the country have been marked by predominantly national narratives (Rebolledo et al., 2020). A narrative is understood as a way of structuring and representing a reality in order to promote a certain point of view, inuence public opinion, and shape audience perceptions (Goodson & Gill, 2011). Unlike an isolated piece of information, which can be quickly forgotten, a narrative that is repeated systematically and in dierent formats has a greater chance of consolidating in collective memory (Marwick, 2018).
doxa.comunicación | nº 42, pp. 99-125 January-June of 2026Iván Sánchez-Marañón and Jordi Rodríguez-VirgiliISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978| 101 campaigns stands out, articulated around rejection of “the caste” and the crisis of representation; fear in PSOE’s campaigns of 1996, 2008 and April 2019, in which they warned about a possible right-wing government (“the Doberman”, “los tres temores con M de miedo” [“the three fears with F of fear”] or the “trifachito”); hope and enthusiasm in PSOE’s 2004 campaign (“We deserve a better Spain”) and in Pedro Sánchez’s 2016 campaign (“A YES for change”), and pride as an identity engine in campaigns like the PP’s in Catalonia in 2010 or VOX’s in 2019, both appealing to national symbols (Crespo-Martínez et al., 2022). ese theoretical expectations were also observed during the July 2023 general elections, in which the opposition bloc predominantly employed anger, while the government bloc mainly appealed to enthusiasm (Sánchez-Marañón & Rodríguez-Virgili, 2024).1.3. e Spanish Political Context in the 2024 European Parliament ElectionsWhen adapting these theoretical expectations to the Spanish political context, it is essential to consider the events that occurred in the year preceding the elections. Following the May 2023 regional and municipal elections, in which the Popular Party (PP) made notable advances by taking most of the autonomous communities and mayorships of key cities from the Socialist Party (PSOE), the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, called early general elections in July 2023. Despite the PP being the force with the largest number of seats, it failed to form a government. Pedro Sánchez was nally invested again as president in November 2023, thanks to the support of the alternative left, coalesced in Sumar, and regional and nationalist parties. erefore, it is essential to consider that, in recent years, inserted in a long electoral cycle, Spain has evolved from an imperfect two-party system to a two-bloc scenario, meaning that, despite the two traditional parties having lost inuence, the political landscape is still structured around two large opposing blocs (Simón, 2020).Between June 6 and 9, 2024, more than 400 million European citizens had the opportunity to participate in the only simultaneous electoral process held in 27 countries for the formation of the same legislative body. In Spain, 61 MEPs out of the 720 that make up the European Parliament were elected. Polls showed the PP as the rst force at around 32-33%, closely followed by the PSOE at around 30%, while Vox was expected to be the third force at around 10% and Sumar was around 6%.e strategies deployed by the parties were clear. e PSOE asked for votes to stop the growth of the extreme right in Spain: “If on July 23 we voted massively to stop a Government of Feijóo and Abascal and we didn’t want that for Spain, we don’t want it for Europe either,” Pedro Sánchez stated at the campaign opening (RTVE, 2024). For its part, the PP sought a kind of second round of the general elections to wear down a “decadent” Government that, in the words of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, “only has one function, to serve the master” -referring to Pedro Sánchez- and whose only objective is to stay in power because their daily life “consists of a succession of spectacles because it’s easier to put on a show than to balance the books” (RTVE, 2024). Both Sumar and Vox sought to dierentiate themselves from the parties in their bloc by denouncing “the grand coalition” that they allegedly formed with PP and PSOE in Brussels (RTVE, 2024).With this in mind, expectations about the use of emotions in electoral campaigns have been adapted considering that the party’s belonging to one bloc or another was one of the main conditioning factors when carrying out the campaign strategy.Given that academic literature predicts that opposition parties tend to resort to emotional appeals based on anger and hatred, our rst hypothesis will be the following:
102 | nº 42, pp. 99-125 | January-June of 2026Between Pride and Anger: Emotional and Discursive Strategies in the 2024 European Elections in SpainISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978doxa.comunicación3. Resultsese ndings along with their statistical analysis are detailed below. Regarding enthusiasm, as shown in Graph 1, the spots show substantial dierences between political parties. PSOE and Sumar are the parties that most resorted to this emotion, with 87% (7/8) and 80% (4/5) of their spots, respectively, including appeals to enthusiasm. In the case of PP, enthusiasm was present in 80% (8/10) of their advertisements, although with a higher proportion of strong-level appeals compared to left-wing parties. In contrast, Vox is the party that least used this emotion, with barely 15% (2/13) of their spots appealing to enthusiasm. Subsequent analysis using the Kruskal-Wallis test indicates that the use of enthusiasm emotion in political spots varies signicantly according to party (χ²=16.058, p<0.01), with a very large eect size (η²=0.3957). Post-hoc Dunn analysis with Bonferroni adjustment reveals that Vox diers signicantly from PP (p<0.01), PSOE (p<0.05) and Sumar (p<0.05), but no signicant dierences are found between the latter.Graph 1. Percentage of appeals to enthusiasm by political partyNote: strong appeals are in dark color and moderate ones in light color.Source: own elaboration
doxa.comunicación | nº 42, pp. 99-125 January-June of 2026Iván Sánchez-Marañón and Jordi Rodríguez-VirgiliISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978| 103 Graph 4. Proportion of emotional appeals according to spot protagonistSource: own elaborationRegarding the narratives employed in spots, as shown in Graph 5, notable dierences are observed between political parties. PP and Vox use predominantly the national one, with 100% (10/10) and 77% (10/13) of their spots, respectively, framed within a national perspective. In contrast, PSOE is the party that most employs a European approach, present in 63% (5/8) of their advertisements, while Sumar also resorts to this narrative, although to a lesser extent (20%; 1/5). e global framework is the least used in the campaign, only 20% (1/5) of Sumar’s spots employ it and no other party uses it. Subsequent analysis using Fisher’s test shows that the narrative employed in political spots varies signicantly according to party (p<0.01), with a moderately strong relationship (Cramér’s V=0.4687). Post-hoc Bonferroni analysis reveals that the only statistically signicant dierence is found between PP and PSOE (p<0.05).
104 | nº 42, pp. 99-125 | January-June of 2026Between Pride and Anger: Emotional and Discursive Strategies in the 2024 European Elections in SpainISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978doxa.comunicaciónFigure 4. Screenshots from electoral spotsSource: YouTubeIn the Spanish context, as already noted, previous studies have documented an increase in both aective polarization (Torcal, 2023) and ideological polarization (Rodríguez-Virgili et al., 2022) during electoral periods. e ndings of this research provide empirical evidence about the role of electoral campaigns in intensifying polarization. During the campaign period, parties systematically resorted to appealing to dierent emotions, so that partisan identication was reinforced through the association of pride with supporters of their own party and anger with political adversaries. us, the results conrm that political parties employed polarizing strategies during the electoral campaign for the European Parliament elections, a fact that was also conrmed in the 2023 general elections (Sánchez-Marañón & Rodríguez-Virgili, 2024).5. Conclusionse analysis of electoral spots reveals signicant dierences in the use of emotions and narratives by the main political parties in the 2024 European Parliament elections in Spain. Regarding emotions, the results show that governing parties (PSOE and Sumar) resorted more frequently to enthusiasm, while opposition parties (PP and Vox) predominantly employed anger. No statistically signicant dierences were found in the use of fear. In terms of narratives, the hypothesis that opposition parties framed their discourse in a national key is conrmed, while governing parties emphasized the European framework. Likewise,
doxa.comunicación | nº 42, pp. 99-125 January-June of 2026Iván Sánchez-Marañón and Jordi Rodríguez-VirgiliISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978| 105 Kleinnijenhuis, J., van Hoof, A. M., & van Atteveldt, W. (2019). e Combined Eects of Mass Media and Social Media on Political Perceptions and Preferences. Journal of Communication, 69(6), 650–673. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqz038Krippendor, K. (2019). Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology (4th ed.). SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781071878781MacKuen, M., Wolak, J., Keele, L. & Marcus, G. E. (2010), Civic Engagements: Resolute Partisanship or Reective Deliberation. American Journal of Political Science, 54(2), 440-458. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2010.00440.xMarcus, G. E. (2000). Emotions in Politics. Annual Review of Political Science, 3(1), 221–250. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.polisci.3.1.221Marcus, G. E., Neuman, W. R., & MacKuen, M. (2000). Aective intelligence and political judgment. University of Chicago Press.Marcus, G. E., & MacKuen, M. B. (1993). Anxiety, Enthusiasm, and the Vote: e Emotional Underpinnings of Learning and Involvement During Presidential Campaigns. American Political Science Review, 87(3), 672-685. https://doi.org/10.2307/2938743Marquart, F., Brosius, A., & de Vreese, C. (2022). United Feelings: e Mediating Role of Emotions in Social Media Campaigns for EU Attitudes and Behavioral Intentions. Journal of Political Marketing, 21(1), 85–111. https://doi.org/10.1080/15377857.2019.1618429Marwick, A. E. (2018). Why do people share fake news? A sociotechnical model of media eects. Georgetown Law Technology Review, 2(2), 474–512. https://acortar.link/NLeploMarzi, G., Balzano, M., & Marchiori, D. (2024). K-Alpha calculator—Krippendor’s alpha calculator: A user-friendly tool for computing Krippendor’s alpha inter-rater reliability coecient. MethodsX, 12, 102545. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mex.2023.102545Mayer, S., y Nguyen, C. (2021). Angry reactionary narcissists? Anger activates the link between narcissism and right‐populist party support. Politics and Governance, 9(3), 248-259. https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v9i3.4000Metz, M., Kruikemeier, S., & Lecheler, S. (2019). Personalization of politics on Facebook: examining the content and eects of professional, emotional and private self-personalization. Information, Communication & Society, 23(10), 1481-1498. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2019.1581244Nai, A. (2020). Going negative, worldwide: Towards a general understanding of determinants and targets of negative campaigning. Government and Opposition, 55(3), 430–455. https://doi.org/10.1017/gov.2018.32Nai, A., & Maier, J. (2021). e Wrath of Candidates. Drivers of Fear and Enthusiasm Appeals in Election Campaigns across the Globe. Journal of Political Marketing, 23(1), 74–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/15377857.2021.1930327Paatelainen, L., Kannasto, E., & Isotalus, P. (2022). Functions of Hybrid Media: How Parties and eir Leaders Use Traditional Media in eir Social Media Campaign Communication. Frontiers in Communication, 6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2021.817285

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106 | nº 42, pp. 99-125 | January-June of 2026Between Pride and Anger: Emotional and Discursive Strategies in the 2024 European Elections in SpainISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978doxa.comunicacióne present study aims to analyze the strategic use of emotions and narratives in the Spanish electoral context, with special attention to the 2024 European Parliament elections. rough a content analysis of electoral spots disseminated on social networks, we examine how the main political parties have employed emotional appeals in their communication and what type of narratives have predominated in their messages. With the joint study of emotional strategies and narratives employed by political parties, we seek to obtain a comprehensive understanding of so-called second-order electoral campaigns. us, while the analysis of narratives allows us to determine whether these elections continue to be second-order by prioritizing national issues, the examination of emotional appeals reveals the mobilization strategies that parties employ in a context of lesser electoral signicance.1.1. e Impact of Emotions on Political Behaviore study of how emotions aect citizens’ political behavior has grown considerably in recent decades. Research has focused mainly on the dierentiated eects of three major categories of emotions: positive emotions (for example, pride, enthusiasm and hope), emotions related to rejection (for example, anger and hatred) and emotions linked to fear and anxiety. Special attention has been paid to how these groups dierently inuence voters, especially in aspects such as the search for political information, electoral participation and voting decisions (Aarøe et al., 2020; Banks et al., 2019; Erhardt et al., 2021; Heiss, 2021; Karl, 2021; Weber, 2013).First, the academic literature points out that positive emotions such as enthusiasm, pride and hope tend to reinforce previous beliefs (Marcus et al., 2000). In the political sphere, this implies that feelings like pride and enthusiasm make voters rely on their partisan loyalties when making electoral decisions, reducing their inclination to seek additional information (Brader, 2006; Marcus et al., 2000; Valentino et al., 2011). Furthermore, these emotions have a strong mobilizing eect, fostering participation both through voting and in other forms of campaign mobilization such as volunteering, donations, participation in debates or protests (Marcus & MacKuen, 1993; Groenendyk, 2019).Second, emotions related to anger make people tend to rely on preexisting heuristics, leading them to make inferences based on stereotypes and reducing their willingness to deliberate carefully (Redlawsk and Mattes, 2022). In the political sphere, this implies that those who experience anger tend to rearm their previous attitudes and positions (Vasilopoulos et al., 2019) while decreasing their interest in learning more about candidates they disagree with and in seeking political information in general (MacKuen et al., 2010). Furthermore, anger has been identied as an emotion with great mobilizing potential (Redlawsk & Mattes, 2022; Groenendyk, 2019), even in some cases surpassing enthusiasm in this aspect (Valentino et al., 2011).Finally, emotions linked to fear and anxiety generate greater focus on what provokes them and reduce the inuence of previous heuristics in decision-making (Wagner & Morisi, 2019). In the political sphere, this implies that fear and anxiety encourage greater information seeking, including exposure to contrary positions (MacKuen et al., 2010). However, not all information receives the same attention, as people tend to focus on that related to the source of their fear or anxiety (Brader, 2006; Marcus and MacKuen, 1993; Marcus, 2000). Likewise, it has been observed that voters who experience anxiety depend less on their partisan closeness when voting (Brader, 2006). However, the relationship between fear, anxiety and political mobilization
doxa.comunicación | nº 42, pp. 99-125 January-June of 2026Iván Sánchez-Marañón and Jordi Rodríguez-VirgiliISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978| 107 –H1: PP and VOX used emotional appeals related to anger in greater proportion.In contrast, given that governing parties are more prone to appeal to enthusiasm and polls placed the PSOE very close to the PP, our second hypothesis will be the following: –H2: PSOE and Sumar used emotional appeals related to enthusiasm in greater proportion.On the other hand, since at a general level the left bloc was more behind than the right bloc in the polls and governing parties that are behind also tend to be more prone to employ appeals to fear, our third hypothesis will be the following: –H3: PSOE and Sumar used emotional appeals related to fear in greater proportion.Regarding narratives, the general hypothesis based on previous campaigns (Rebolledo et al. 2020; Sádaba et al., 2016) is that Euro-pean issues will not enter the electoral campaign and that the scope to which party messages refer will be local or national rather than European. Consequently, it will be veried that European elections in Spain continue to be second-order. is is specied in two hypotheses: –H4: PP and Vox used the national narrative in greater proportion (among other reasons, because they present them as a kind of second round of the 2023 general elections and a tool to wear down a government with a fragile parliamentary majority). –H5: PSOE and Sumar employed the European narrative in greater proportion (precisely for the opposite reasons to those sta-ted in H4 and to highlight the need for a strong left in Europe in the face of the rise of extreme right parties).2. MethodologyTo evaluate these hypotheses, a content analysis has been carried out. is is a method widely used in Political Communication research due to its eectiveness in collecting, processing and analyzing information about messages disseminated in dierent media (Gómez-Escalonilla, 2021). In the study of electoral spots, this approach has been consolidated as a standard methodological tool, being employed in numerous previous works (D’Adamo et al., 2021; García Hipola, 2017; Valenzuela et al., 2023; Ridout and Searles, 2011).e strategy of an electoral campaign materializes through various actions, such as rallies, outdoor advertising, posters, canvassing or door-to-door campaigning, the design of slogans and mottos, the distribution of promotional material, interviews in media outlets, the use of marketing tools, social media activity, sectoral meetings and the organization of public events, among others. In the context of videopolitics, the electoral spot emerges as the main communicative resource, as it represents the most inuential direct channel between candidates and the electorate, providing voters with key information about political proposals and the image of candidates (Benoit, 1999; Sádaba & Jove, 2017).For this work, the denition of spot established by Sádaba (2003), which is focused on television, is adapted to social networks. us, electoral spot is understood as those political messages with a professional script and production broadcast during campaigns, eminently persuasive, constructed by the parties themselves and not mediated by the media. erefore, simple cuts from rallies, cuts from media interviews, etc., are not considered spots. e analysis of electoral spots is particularly useful for understanding party strategy, given that these messages are not subject to media intermediation, which allows political formations to exercise absolute control over the content they transmit (Rodríguez Virgili & Sádaba, 2010). Being direct
108 | nº 42, pp. 99-125 | January-June of 2026Between Pride and Anger: Emotional and Discursive Strategies in the 2024 European Elections in SpainISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978doxa.comunicaciónremains inconclusive (Ridout and Searles, 2011; Gadarian & Brader, 2023). Furthermore, it has been shown that excessive use of fear-based messages can harm a candidate’s perception if voters consider their ads excessively negative or unfair (Nai, 2020).Table 1 summarizes how dierent emotional categories inuence electoral mobilization, political information seeking, and partisan identication.Table 1. Eects of emotions on votersElectoral mobilizationPolitical information seekingPartisan identicationEnthusiasm/PridePositive eectNegative eectPositive eectAnger/HatredPositive eectNegative eectPositive eectFear/AnxietyInconclusive resultsPositive eectNegative eectSource: Sánchez-Marañón & Rodríguez-Virgili (2024), based on Gadarian & Brader (2023) and Redlawsk & Mattes (2022)e relevance of studying the impact of emotions on political behavior has also increased in recent years as polarization has become one of the leading political phenomena (Colomer, 2023; Gidron et al., 2020; Klein, 2021). Both ideological and aective polarization have increased in recent years in Spain (Rama & Casal, 2020; Rodríguez-Virgili et al., 2022; Simón, 2021; Torcal, 2023). Unlike ideological polarization, which focuses on the ideological distance between two parties located on the left-right spectrum, aective polarization refers to an emotional separation, the distance between the adhesion or aection generated among those who share political ideas and the rejection or antipathy aroused by those who defend dierent ideas (Garrido, et al., 2021; Wagner, 2021). at is, the distinction between both types of polarization is based on the dierence between two types of attitudes: beliefs or opinions (ideological) and desires, feelings or emotions (aective). Consequently, aective polarization is of interest in this article due to its relationship with emotions.1.2. e Use of Emotions in Political CommunicationWhile there is extensive research on how emotions inuence political behavior, less attention has been paid to understanding how and under what circumstances political parties use emotional appeals in real campaigns, with most research focused on the United States (Grüning & Schubert, 2022; Marquart et al., 2022; Nai & Maier, 2021). Based on the dierent eects they have on voters, researchers have identied two key factors that inuence the types of emotional appeals employed: (i) whether a party is in government or in opposition (Shen, 2012; Crabtree et al., 2020) and (ii) whether a party leads or lags in polls (Chou & Lien, 2012; Ridout & Searles, 2011).Regarding whether a party is in government or in opposition, recent research indicates that the former usually resort to fear and anxiety to present the incumbent candidate as the option that guarantees stability against threats or uncertainty (Mayer & Nguyen, 2021; Crespo-Martínez et al., 2022). In contrast, opposition parties appeal more to anger and indignation, seeking to mobilize discontented voters and reinforce their rejection of the current government (Redlawsk & Mattes, 2022). In the
doxa.comunicación | nº 42, pp. 99-125 January-June of 2026Iván Sánchez-Marañón and Jordi Rodríguez-VirgiliISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978| 109 and unmediated, persuasive messages, spots constitute a fundamental tool for examining the image that each party wants to project and determining the target audience to which their messages are directed (Capdevila, 2004). us, to understand the emotional and discursive strategies of parties in the 2024 European elections, a content analysis of the videos broadcast by the parties is employed.Regarding selection criteria, the sample consists of electoral spots published by the main Spanish political parties on at least three of the four main social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube) between the calling of the European elections (May 24) and election day (June 9), that is, 17 days in total. e spots were manually extracted from the dierent social networks, resulting in a total of 36 spots: 10 from PP, 8 from PSOE, 5 from Sumar and 13 from Vox.To carry out the coding, an analysis code was developed with three main groups of variables (the complete code can be found in Appendix 1). First, variables related to the general information of each spot were included, providing a basic framework to contextualize the analysis. ese variables cover the identication of the spot, specifying the name or reference of the advertisement, as well as the issuing party, allowing distinction between the dierent political actors involved in the campaign, and the publication date, expressed in days since the electoral call. Likewise, the protagonist of the spot was identied, dierentiating whether the message was centered on the candidate of the issuing party, another politician from the same formation, the party as an institution, candidates or politicians from rival parties, or non-political actors such as anonymous citizens or public gures.e second group of variables analyzed the emotional component of the spots, evaluating the presence and intensity of dierent emotional appeals. e presence of each of the three groups of emotions (enthusiasm, anger and fear) was analyzed separately. Following the analysis proposed by Brader (2006) and Ridout & Searles (2011), for each emotion, it was recorded whether the spot contained no appeal, some appeal or a strong appeal, thus allowing trends in the use of emotions throughout the campaign and between dierent parties to be identied. e distinction between some and strong emotional appeal does not lie solely in the content of the verbal message, but in the degree of integration of audiovisual elements that reinforce that emotion (see Appendix 2). Some appeal occurs when the emotion is present in the discourse (for example, through criticism, expressions of discomfort or calls to action), but is not enhanced sensorially. In contrast, we speak of a strong appeal when the spot coherently articulates music, images, editing rhythm and narrative tone, all aligned to provoke an intense emotional response in the viewer. Furthermore, following these studies, coding was performed based on the issuing party’s intention when designing the advertisement, rather than based on the coder’s subjective reaction to seeing it. e application of these criteria made it possible to minimize the risk that coder subjectivity would inuence content analysis.Additionally, a variable focused on the spot’s narrative was included, which allowed for determining the level at which the advertisement’s discourse was situated. Four categories of focus were dierentiated: European, when the message revolved around institutions or problems specic to the European Union; national, if the spot focused on the country’s internal policy issues; global, when the message addressed broader international problems; and regional, in case the spot’s focus was on a more limited territorial context within the country. is variable was key to understanding at what level of debate campaign discourses are framed and how political parties structured their communication based on the reference scope of each topic.
110 | nº 42, pp. 99-125 | January-June of 2026Between Pride and Anger: Emotional and Discursive Strategies in the 2024 European Elections in SpainISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978doxa.comunicaciónRegarding fear, as shown in Graph 3, the spots show that this emotion was used less frequently compared to anger and enthusiasm. Vox is the party that most resorts to fear, with 31% (4/13) of their advertisements including this emotion, followed by PP, where it is present in 20% (2/10) of spots. In the case of PSOE and Sumar, the appeal to fear is even more reduced, with 13% (1/8) and 20% (1/5) of their advertisements, respectively. Subsequent analysis using the Kruskal-Wallis test indicates that there are no signicant dierences in the use of fear emotion between political parties (χ²=0.6715, p=0.88).Graph 3. Percentage of appeals to fear by political partyNote: strong appeals are in dark color and moderate ones in light color.Source: own elaboration
doxa.comunicación | nº 42, pp. 99-125 January-June of 2026Iván Sánchez-Marañón and Jordi Rodríguez-VirgiliISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978| 111 Figure 1. Examples of appeals to angerSource: YouTubeSecond, the second hypothesis (H2) is partially supported. While it is true that PP showed a considerable level of positive appeals, the left bloc resorted more frequently to communicative strategies based on the exaltation of achievements or positive messages, (e.g., Figure 2) while Vox barely incorporated appeals to enthusiasm in their campaign. is nding suggests that, as expected, governing parties are the most prone to resort to the exaltation of achievements and mobilization of their electoral base through optimism messages, as already occurred by PSOE in 2004, 2016 and 2019 (Crespo-Martínez et al., 2022). However, our results suggest that they are not the only ones to employ this strategy. Given the mobilizing power of emotions like enthusiasm (Brader, 2006; Marcus et al., 2000) parties leading in polls are also prone to employ them (Crabtree et al., 2020), which explains their use by PP, both in this campaign and in 2023 (Sánchez-Marañón & Rodríguez-Virgili, 2024).Figure 2. Examples of appeals to enthusiasmSource: YouTube
112 | nº 42, pp. 99-125 | January-June of 2026Between Pride and Anger: Emotional and Discursive Strategies in the 2024 European Elections in SpainISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978doxa.comunicación9. ReferencesAarøe, L., Petersen, M. B., & Arceneaux, K. (2020). e Behavioral Immune System Shapes Partisan Preferences in Modern Democracies: Disgust Sensitivity Predicts Voting for Socially Conservative Parties. Political Psychology, 41(6), 1073–1091. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12665Banks, A. J., White, I. K., & McKenzie, B. D. (2019). Black Politics: How Anger Inuences the Political Actions Blacks Pursue to Reduce Racial Inequality. Political Behavior, 41(4), 917–943. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-018-9477-1Berganza Conde, R. (2008). Las elecciones al Parlamento Europeo como comicios de segundo orden. Estudio de la cobertura informativa en televisión (1999-2004). Estudios Sobre El Mensaje Periodístico, 14: 15 - 31. http://bit.ly/4kgPRLlBenoit, W. L. (1999). Seeing spots: a functional analysis of presidential television advertisements, 1952-1996. Praeger. https://doi.org/10.5040/9798216012450Brader, T. (2005). Striking a Responsive Chord: How Political Ads Motivate and Persuade Voters by Appealing to Emotions. American Journal of Political Science, 49(2), 388-405. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0092-5853.2005.00130.xBrader, T. (2006). Campaigning for hearts and minds: how emotional appeals in political ads work. University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226788302.001.0001Bustos Díaz, J. (2024). Una campaña audiovisual: Análisis de las elecciones generales del año 2023 en redes sociales. Anàlisi: Quaderns de Comunicació i Cultura, 70, 37-57. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/analisi.3690Capdevila Gómez, A. (2004). El discurso persuasivo: la estructura retórica de los spots electorales en televisión. Barcelona: Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona.Chou, H. Y., & Lien, N. H. (2012). e eects of appeal types and candidates’ poll rankings in negative political advertising. Asian Journal of Communication, 23(5), 489–518. https://doi.org/10.1080/01292986.2012.731607Colomer, J. M. (2023). La polarización política en Estados Unidos. Barcelona: Debate.Crabtree, C., Golder, M., Gschwend, T., & Indriđason, I. H. (2020). It is not only what you say, it is also how you say it: e strategic use of campaign sentiment. e Journal of Politics, 82(3), 1044–1060. https://doi.org/10.1086/707613Crespo-Martínez, I., Garrido-Rubia, A., & Rojo-Martínez, J. M. (2022). El uso de las emociones en la comunicación político-electoral. Revista Española de Ciencia Política, 58, 175-201. https://doi.org/10.21308/RECP.58.06D’Adamo, O., García Beaudoux, V. I., & Agustín Bruni, L. (2021). Las emociones en la comunicación política: breve recorrido teórico. Opera (Bogotá, Colombia), 28, 195–215. https://doi.org/10.18601/16578651.n28.09Dader, J.L. (2024). Te odio, te quiero: la degradación sentimentaloide de la comunicación política contemporánea (y un muestrario de evidencias). adComunica: revista cientíca de estrategias, tendencias e innovación en comunicación, 28, 169-198. https://doi.org/10.6035/adcomunica.7895Erhardt, J., Freitag, M., Filsinger, M., & Wamsler, S. (2021). e Emotional Foundations of Political Support: How Fear and Anger Aect Trust in the Government in Times of the Covid-19 Pandemic. Swiss Political Science Review, 27(2), 339–352. https://doi.org/10.1111/spsr.12462

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doxa.comunicación | nº 42, pp. 99-125 January-June of 2026Iván Sánchez-Marañón and Jordi Rodríguez-VirgiliISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978| 113 Sierra, A., y Rodríguez-Virgili, J. (2020). Comunicación política y medios sociales: análisis del estado de la cuestión de 2008 a 2018. Revista Mediterránea de Comunicación, 11(1), 245–260. https://doi.org/10.14198/MEDCOM2020.11.1.21Simón, P. (2020). Two-bloc Logic, Polarisation and Coalition Government: e November 2019 General Election in Spain. South European Society and Politics, 25(3–4), 533–563. https://doi.org/10.1080/13608746.2020.1857085Simón, P. (2021). Two-bloc Logic, Polarisation and Coalition Government: e November 2019 General Election in Spain. South European Society and Politics, 25(3-4): 533-563. https://doi.org/10.1080/13608746.2020.1857085 Singh, S. P., & ornton, J. R. (2019). Elections activate partisanship across countries. American Political Science Review, 113(1), 248–253. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055418000722Stean, D., & Venema, N. (2020). New medium, old strategies? Comparing online and traditional campaign posters for German Bundestag elections, 2013–2017. European Journal of Communication, 35(4), 370-388. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323120903681Tamayo Sanz, M. D., Rebolledo de la Calle, M., & Serrano Puche, J. (2023). La adaptación del politainment a YouTube: El uso de los partidos políticos españoles durante la campaña electoral de abril de 2019. Fonseca, Journal of Communication, 26, 211–235. https://doi.org/10.14201/fjc.31179Tenscher, J. & Maier M. (2009). European Parliamentary Elections 2004. Studies on Political Campaigning and Media Framing of a Second-Order Event. Journal of Political Marketing, 8. https://doi.org/10.1080/15377850802592023 Torcal, M. (2023). De votantes a hooligans: La polarización política en España. Madrid: Catarata.Valentino, N. A., Brader, T., Groenendyk, E. W., Gregorowicz, K., & Hutchings, V. L. (2011). Election night’s alright for ghting: e role of emotions in political participation. e Journal of Politics, 73(1), 156–170. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022381610000939Valenzuela, K., Rodríguez-Virgili, J., & López-Pan, F. (2023). El populismo en las campañas electorales: análisis de los spots en las elecciones presidenciales de 2015 y 2019 en Guatemala. Revista de Comunicación, 22(1), 453-474. https://doi.org/10.26441/RC22.1-2023-3069Vasilopoulos, P., Marcus, G. E., Valentino, N. A., & Foucault, M. (2019). Fear, Anger, and Voting for the Far Right: Evidence From the November 13, 2015 Paris Terror Attacks. Political Psychology, 40(4), 679–704. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12513Villar-Hernández, P., & Rossell, P. (2021). Transformaciones y rasgos discursivos del spot electoral en los comicios generales del 26J en España. Cuadernos.info, 50, 275-298. https://doi.org/10.7764/cdi.50.27313Wagner, M. (2021). Aective Polarization in Multiparty Systems. Electoral Studies, 69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2020.102199 Wagner, M., & Morisi, D. (2019). Anxiety, fear, and political decision making. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.915Weber, C. (2013). Emotions, Campaigns, and Political Participation. Political Research Quarterly, 66(2), 414–428. https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912912449697

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114 | nº 42, pp. 99-125 | January-June of 2026Between Pride and Anger: Emotional and Discursive Strategies in the 2024 European Elections in SpainISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978doxa.comunicacióncase of emotions related to enthusiasm and pride, these tend to be employed by both. While parties in power use pride to consolidate their legitimacy and reinforce the support of their electoral base, presenting their management as a success and their continuity as a guarantee of stability, opposition parties use enthusiasm and hope to project an image of change and build an attractive political alternative to a present perceived as unsatisfactory (Crespo-Martínez et al., 2022).Regarding whether a party leads in polls or lags, the academic literature shows that those leading the polls tend to resort more often to appeals to emotions related to pride and enthusiasm. is is because they reinforce preexisting opinions, increase partisan loyalty and eectively mobilize supporters, helping leading candidates maximize their support base during the campaign (Crabtree et al., 2020; Crespo-Martínez et al., 2022). In contrast, parties that lag in polls tend to employ more disruptive strategies, resorting to emotions like anger or fear. In the case of fear, this is because it makes voters less likely to rely on partisan loyalty when casting their vote, increases the search for partisan information and makes them more prone to changing their minds (Wagner and Morisi, 2019). In contrast, the use of anger is due to its great mobilizing potential, even superior to that of enthusiasm (Valentino et al., 2011), which can be useful for activating demobilized citizens who sympathize with the party (Chou & Lien, 2012; Crespo-Martínez et al., 2022).To all this must be added that the rise of social networks has intensied emotional communication in electoral campaigns. Social networks have allowed political parties to generate a broader and more diverse volume of content, without being subject to the restrictions of traditional campaign spaces (Villar-Hernández & Pellisser-Rossell, 2021). Furthermore, they facilitate more precise segmentation of the electorate and a rapid response to political events (Kleinnijenhuis et al., 2019). In particular, digital platforms have revolutionized campaign strategies through microtargeting, which allows parties to adapt their emotional appeals to dierent groups of voters, employing dierentiated strategies according to the characteristics and preferences of each electoral segment (Fowler et al., 2021). us, the same party can use dierent emotions and narratives for dierent audiences, maximizing the eectiveness of their communication and optimizing the impact of each message according to the recipient’s prole (Fowler et al., 2021; Paatelainen et al., 2022).As a result, platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have consolidated as the main political communication media for parties (Sierra & Rodríguez-Virgili, 2020; Tamayo-Sanz et al., 2023). Digital technology and the growth of social networks have given electoral spots a central role as a tool for emotional mobilization and have provided great versatility to the production and dissemination of political videos (Peña-Jiménez & Zorogastua, 2025; Plazas-Olmedo & López-Rabadán, 2022). Electoral spots can be dened as “televised political messages during campaigns, eminently persuasive, constructed by the parties themselves and not mediated by the media” (Sádaba, 2003: 166). Specically, social networks have promoted the production of spots designed for virality, characterized by intensive use of audiovisual elements (Bustos-Díaz, 2024), greater personalization (Metz et al., 2019; Wilches et al., 2024) and an emphasis on negative campaigning, with appeals to emotions like anger and fear (Haselmayer, 2019). ese trends are not exclusive consequences of digitalization but were already on the rise due to the professionalization of political communication, a process that accelerated with the expansion of social networks (Stean & Venema, 2020).In the Spanish case, we nd several relevant examples that adapt to theoretical expectations about the strategic use of these emotions by political parties in their campaign messages. us, the use of anger and indignation in Podemos’ 2015 and 2016
doxa.comunicación | nº 42, pp. 99-125 January-June of 2026Iván Sánchez-Marañón and Jordi Rodríguez-VirgiliISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978| 115 To minimize subjectivity in the analysis, the coding process was performed by four coders. In order to guarantee the reliability of the procedure, an initial meeting was rst held in which the coding criteria were presented, and a preliminary test was conducted. Subsequently, a reliability test was carried out by randomly selecting a subsample equivalent to 22% of the total, a percentage that falls within the ranges recommended by Wimmer & Dominick (1996). e calculation of Krippendor’s Alpha coecient to evaluate inter-coder reliability yielded a value greater than 0.85 for all variables, indicating a high level of agreement between coders (Krippendor, 2019; Marzi et al., 2024).With the electoral spots already coded, we proceeded to perform association tests between the analyzed variables to identify patterns in the use of emotions and narratives by dierent political parties. To do this, we applied dierent statistical tests depending on the nature of each variable, evaluating both the statistical signicance of the associations and their eect size. e tests used for each case and the justication for their choice are detailed below.To analyze the relationship between political parties and the use of emotions in electoral spots, the Kruskal-Wallis test was applied, a non-parametric test suitable for comparing distributions when the independent variable (political party) is categorical and the dependent variable (appeal to emotions) is ordinal or does not follow a normal distribution. is test made it possible to evaluate whether there were signicant dierences in the use of anger, fear and enthusiasm emotions between dierent parties. To estimate the magnitude of the association, eta squared (η²) was calculated, a measure of eect size that indicates what proportion of variability in the use of emotions can be attributed to dierences between parties. In those cases where signicant dierences were identied, a post-hoc Dunn analysis with Bonferroni adjustment was performed, which made it possible to determine which parties diered from each other in their use of each emotion, minimizing the risk of type I error when adjusting for multiple comparisons.On the other hand, to evaluate the association between political parties and narratives in spots, Fisher’s exact test was used. is test is suitable for analyzing relationships between categorical variables in contingency tables when sample sizes are small, making it more precise than the chi-square test in this context. us, Fisher’s test made it possible to determine whether the distribution of dierent discursive frameworks varied signicantly according to the political party. To measure the intensity of this association, Cramér’s V was calculated, which provides an estimate of the strength of the relationship between variables. When a signicant association was found, a post-hoc Dunn analysis with Bonferroni adjustment was performed, to identify which parties diered signicantly in their use of narratives and ensure the statistical validity of the results.Finally, in the analysis of protagonists, given that dierent types of protagonists can use emotions in similar ways, this can make it dicult to detect signicant dierences between specic pairs. For this reason, in addition to calculating the Kruskal-Wallis test with the original coding, the variable was recoded into two main groups: ingroup, composed of political actors from the party itself and ordinary citizens; and outgroup, which includes actors outside the party, such as opposing candidates, opposing politicians and the rival party. Likewise, emotional appeals were recoded into dichotomous variables. After this recoding, Fisher’s exact test was used to evaluate the association between the type of protagonist and the emotion expressed. Subsequently, the Odds Ratio (OR) with its 95% condence interval was calculated as a measure of eect size. Due to the presence of zero values in some cells, the Haldane-Anscombe correction was applied to obtain more stable OR estimates.
116 | nº 42, pp. 99-125 | January-June of 2026Between Pride and Anger: Emotional and Discursive Strategies in the 2024 European Elections in SpainISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978doxa.comunicaciónAs shown in Graph 2, the analysis of the distribution of appeals to anger in advertising spots reveals important dierences between political parties. Vox is the party that most resorted to this emotion, with 92% (12/13) of their advertisements including appeals to anger, followed by PP, where this emotion was present in 80% (8/10) of their spots. In contrast, PSOE and Sumar resorted less to anger, with 37% (3/8) and 20% (1/5) of spots, respectively. Likewise, dierences in the intensity of the appeal are observed: while Vox and PP combined both some and strong appeals to anger, in the case of PSOE and Sumar only mild appeals are identied, with no use of strong appeals. Subsequent analysis using the Kruskal-Wallis test indicates that the use of anger emotion in political spots varies signicantly according to party (χ²=12.756, p<0.01), with a large eect size (η²=0.2957). Post-hoc Dunn analysis with Bonferroni adjustment shows that the only statistically signicant dierence is found between Sumar and Vox (p<0.05).Graph 2. Percentage of appeals to anger by political partyNote: strong appeals are in dark color and moderate ones in light color.Source: own elaboration
doxa.comunicación | nº 42, pp. 99-125 January-June of 2026Iván Sánchez-Marañón and Jordi Rodríguez-VirgiliISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978| 117 Additionally, it should be added that the analysis of the association between the type of protagonist in spots and the use of emotions reveals signicant patterns in the case of enthusiasm and anger, but not in fear. For enthusiasm, a strong association was found (p<0.001, Cramér’s V=0.8494), indicating that this emotion is strongly linked to the type of protagonist. In particular, post-hoc Bonferroni analysis showed that politicians from their own party resort signicantly more to enthusiasm than opposing politicians (p.adj<0.05), and that the latter use it more than anonymous actors or people from the street (p.adj<0.01). In the case of anger, although a signicant relationship was identied (p<0.05, Cramér’s V=0.6309), post-hoc analysis found no statistically signicant dierences between specic protagonists, indicating that its use might be more distributed among dierent actors. Fear, in contrast, showed no signicant association with the type of protagonist (p=0.14), suggesting more homogeneous use in spots.For its part, Graph 4 shows that emotional appeals vary depending on whether the protagonist belongs to the ingroup or outgroup. Specically, enthusiasm is used almost exclusively when the protagonist is from the ingroup (88%; 21/24), while this emotion is not resorted to when the protagonist is from the outgroup (0%; 0/11). On the other hand, anger is more frequent when the protagonist is from the outgroup (91%; 10/11) than when from the ingroup (54%; 13/24). Furthermore, it should be noted that when the protagonist is from the ingroup, most of the time it is a candidate or politician from that group who appeals to anger by referring to someone from the outgroup. Finally, fear is less frequent but appears more when the protagonist is from the outgroup (36%; 7/11) than from the ingroup (13%; 3/24). In statistical terms, Fisher’s test shows that enthusiasm showed a highly signicant association (p<0.001, Cramér’s V=0.8292). e calculation of the odds ratio corrected with the Haldane-Anscombe correction conrms that enthusiasm is used more frequently when the protagonist belongs to the ingroup (OR=141.29, 95% CI: 6.70 - 2978.91). For anger, although Fisher’s test did not reach statistical signicance (p>0.05), the value obtained is very close (p=0.055). e calculation of the corrected odds ratio (with the Haldane-Anscombe correction) suggests that anger is less frequent in the ingroup (OR=0.168, 95% CI: 0.025 - 1.102), although the condence interval indicates that the dierence is not conclusive. Finally, fear showed no signicant relationship with the type of protagonist (p=0.17).
118 | nº 42, pp. 99-125 | January-June of 2026Between Pride and Anger: Emotional and Discursive Strategies in the 2024 European Elections in SpainISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978doxa.comunicaciónGraph 5. Distribution of narratives according to political partySource: own elaboration4. Discussione results of this study conrm that emotions constitute a strategic pillar in the electoral communication of the main Spanish political parties. Likewise, they show that the way each formation uses them is not uniform.First, as our rst hypothesis (H1) proposed, opposition parties (PP and Vox) resorted more frequently to emotional appeals linked to anger (e.g., Figure 1), placing themselves clearly above PSOE and Sumar. is nding coincides with previous literature, which associates the strategic use of anger with the intention to mobilize discontented voters and reinforce previous attitudes of rejection toward the establishment (Redlawsk & Mattes, 2022; Valentino et al., 2011), as occurred with Podemos’ case in 2015-2016 (Crespo-Martínez et al., 2022). Likewise, the result is very similar to that of the past 2023 elections (Sánchez-Marañón & Rodríguez-Virgili, 2024).
doxa.comunicación | nº 42, pp. 99-125 January-June of 2026Iván Sánchez-Marañón and Jordi Rodríguez-VirgiliISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978| 119 ird, the results do not conrm the third hypothesis (H3) about greater use of fear by PSOE and Sumar. Fear, as in 2023 (Sánchez-Marañón & Rodríguez-Virgili, 2024), was used limitedly in the campaign and showed no statistically signicant dierences between parties. is absence of a clear pattern indicates that the appeal to fear might respond to more complex conjunctural dynamics, linked to the nature of threats perceived in each political context (Wagner & Morisi, 2019).On the other hand, our results support our hypotheses regarding the use of narratives. In general terms, it is conrmed, in line with Fernández-Rovira & Carniel-Bugs (2024), that public discussion about the European Union is in decline and that national approaches are increasing. In elections considered by academic literature as second-order (Reif & Schmitt, 1980), we expected (H4) that opposition parties, PP and Vox, would use the national narrative more frequently, while (H5) those in government, PSOE and Sumar, would use the European narrative more frequently. e results conrmed these hypotheses, also showing a clear dierence between the main opposition party (PP) and the main government party (PSOE); while the former used only the national narrative, the latter used the European narrative in almost two-thirds of spots (e.g., Figure 3). is nding therefore corroborates the expectations of literature about European Parliament elections as second-order elections (Reif & Schmitt, 1980).Figure 3. Examples of dierent uses of narrativesSource: YouTubeFinally, our study also reveals that there is a signicant relationship between the spot’s protagonist and the emotions appealed to. In particular, advertisements starring a member of the ingroup appeal to emotions related to pride, while those starring members of the outgroup tend to appeal to feelings related to anger (e.g., Figure 4). is nding is especially relevant, as it contributes to a better understanding of how electoral processes tend to intensify political polarization. Recent research has shown that elections usually generate an increase in polarization in the country where they are held (Singh & ornton, 2019; Hernández et al., 2021). is is explained, to a large extent, by the deliberate strategy of political actors, who, being aware that polarization fosters participation, use it as a central resource in their campaigns.
120 | nº 42, pp. 99-125 | January-June of 2026Between Pride and Anger: Emotional and Discursive Strategies in the 2024 European Elections in SpainISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978doxa.comunicacióna clear relationship was identied between the type of protagonist in spots and the emotion used: advertisements starring members of their own party appealed more frequently to enthusiasm, while those featuring political adversaries made more intensive use of anger.In conclusion, these ndings conrm the central role of emotions in electoral communication and reinforce the characterization of European elections as second-order contests, where parties prioritize national narratives and adapt their discourse according to their governmental role. Beyond these specic results, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of the impact of campaigns on increasing polarization, empirically demonstrating that parties implement strategies that reinforce partisan identication through dierential association of emotions with political ingroups and outgroups. For future research, it is necessary to expand the study of the use of emotional appeals through comparative analyses that examine dierent national contexts, party systems and types of elections, with the objective of identifying the factors that determine parties’ communicative strategies and ensuring the generalization of the ndings presented here.6. Acknowledgmentse authors thank the coding work of María Fernanda Brea May and Vania Samperio.7. Specic contributions of each authorName and surnameConception and design of workIván Sánchez-Marañón & Jordi Rodríguez-VirgiliMethodologyIván Sánchez-MarañónData collection and analysisIván Sánchez-Marañón & Jordi Rodríguez-VirgiliDiscussion and conclusionsIván Sánchez-Marañón & Jordi Rodríguez-VirgiliWriting, formatting, version review and approvalIván Sánchez-Marañón & Jordi Rodríguez-Virgili8. Conict of interestse authors declare no conict of interest.
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doxa.comunicación | nº 42, pp. 99-125 January-June of 2026Iván Sánchez-Marañón and Jordi Rodríguez-VirgiliISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978| 123 Wilches, J., Guerrero, H., & Niño, C. (2024). Emociones políticas y narrativas prototípicas: TikTok en las campañas políticas, estudio de caso. Revista Latina de Comunicación Social, 82, 1–28. https://doi.org/10.4185/rlcs-2024-2234Wimmer, R. D., & Dominick, J. R. (1996). La investigación cientíca de los medios de comunicación: una introducción a sus métodos (1st ed.). Bosch.Zurutuza, C., & García-Ortega, C. (2012). Las elecciones europeas de 2009 en la prensa aragonesa. Revista Latina de Comunicación Social, 67, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-067-945-001-022

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124 | nº 42, pp. 99-125 | January-June of 2026Between Pride and Anger: Emotional and Discursive Strategies in the 2024 European Elections in SpainISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978doxa.comunicación11. AppendixAppendix 1Table A1. Analysis CodeVariablesCategoriesA) General elements of the spotV1 Issuing PartyPP PSOESUMARVOXV2 Publication Date[0, 16]0 = 24th May16 = 9th JuneV3 ProtagonistCandidate (from issuing party)Politician (from issuing party)Issuing partyOpposing candidateOpposing partyAnonymous/People from the streetCelebrityOthers/NobodyB) Presence of emotional appeals in the spotV4 Appeal to EnthusiasmNoneSomeStrongV5 Appeal to AngerNoneSomeStrongV6 Appeal to FearNoneSomeStrongC) Narrative employed in the spotV7 Narrative employedRegionalNationalEuropeanGlobalSource: own elaboration
doxa.comunicación | nº 42, pp. 99-125 January-June of 2026Iván Sánchez-Marañón and Jordi Rodríguez-VirgiliISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978| 125 Appendix 2As detailed in the methodological section, the coding of emotions is based on approaches developed by Brader (2006) and Ridout and Searles (2011), studying the presence of each emotion separately and at three levels: none, some and strong appeal. To dierentiate between some and strong appeal, the degree of integration of audiovisual elements that reinforce that emotion was taken into account. Below are two representative examples of appeals to anger, with a detailed explanation of the elements that justify their coding.e following Vox spot has been coded as “strong appeal” to anger. is is due to the deliberate integration of verbal, visual and sound resources that mutually reinforce the confrontational tone of the message. e language employed in the spot adopts a direct denunciation register against the government parties and their alliances, presenting them as responsible for multiple social grievances. is verbal narrative is intensied through the use of symbolic images that represent threat, collapse or decadence (such as collapsing nuclear power plants, women in burkas or scenes of social tension), which act as emotional catalysts aimed at provoking indignation and alarm. Added to this is a dramatic soundtrack, with an increasing rhythm and a grave cinematographic-style tone, which amplies the emotional impact of the whole. is coherent and strategic combination of elements makes the spot a paradigmatic example of intense appeal to anger, in line with the criteria dened in the study’s methodological framework.In contrast, this PP spot has been coded as “some appeal” given the presence of a critical and discomfort tone, but expressed in a contained manner and without additional resources that emotionally intensify the message. e spot shows a citizen drafting successive versions of a letter addressed to the President of the Government, reecting frustration with his management and political disaection. Although the verbal content transmits disagreement and disenchantment, the visual environment is sober and everyday, without shocking images or loaded symbolism. e background music, although slightly growing in intensity, maintains a discreet tone. Overall, the spot is coded as some appeal to anger, insofar as it contains elements of criticism without deploying the audiovisual resources that characterize a strong emotional appeal.

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