Restorers and bicentennials: the allegorical speeches of the Costa Rican general election campaign 2018

Abstract

The 2018 general elections in Costa Rica showed a discursive confrontation that seemed unlikely. During the second round of the elections, where the presidency was disputed, the “Acción Ciudadana” Party (PAC) led by Carlos Alvarado and the “Restauración Nacional” (RN) party led by Fabricio Alvarado showed a dialectical discursivity. On the one hand, the social democratic tradition is expected. However, on the other hand, and worryingly, there is a restoration of conservative and religious fundamentalism. From this discursive duality, these messages are comparatively analyzed starting from contrasting assumed and assigned symbols from the discursive strategies of the two political parties in electoral conflict. The central interest of this
paper is to show the thrust of the religious allegorical discourse that permeated the presidential campaign.