The issues of the Spanish political leaders in Twitter. Analysis of the two electoral campaigns in 2015

Abstract

This piece of research focuses on the issues published in Twitter by the main four Spanish political leaders during the local and regional elections and general elections, both held in 2015. The research method is a quantitative content analysis applied to the 2,998 tweets published by Mariano Rajoy (PP), Pedro Sanchez (PSOE), Pablo Iglesias (Podemos) and Albert Rivera (Ciudadanos). The objectives are to identify the campaign issues and to compare their presence between different campaigns and leaders. The results show that the main issue in both elections is the own party campaign activities. However, the presence of this topic decreases during the general election, when the leaders are also candidates, are more active in Twitter and include a broader variety of issues. Regarding the main differences between leaders, Rajoy and Sanchez highlight the economic issues, while Iglesias and Rivera focused on corruption and political regeneration.