A retórica populista de Bolsonaro em 2018 : estudo de caso dos debates pré-eleitorais televisionados

Abstract

This work aims to rhetorically analyze a set of statements made in two major televised debates of the 2018 Brazilian presidential race, aiming to describe the elements of Jair Bolsonaro's populist rhetoric. We are theoretically based on researchers of populism, populist communication and rhetoric and argumentation. Methodologically, 12 speech sequences extracted from two pre-election debates in 2018 were analyzed, grouped under 4 axes of analysis. The analysis of these data showed occurrences of most of the elements belonging to the (neo-)populist rhetoric of the 21st century, such as verbal virulence towards the opponent, the harmful construction of the opponent's image, Bolsonaro's self-consecration as an anti-system force that will lead the change that the people demand, the dichotomization of the future between two options that exclude each other, and, finally, stereotyping as the dominant discursive model.