The discourse of change of Aécio Neves and Dilma Rousseff: an analysis of rhetorical practice between different, in return for the second round the 2014 elections

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to analyze the discursive battle between different candidates for the Presidency, Aécio Neves (from PSDB party) and Dilma Rousseff (from PT party), at the Free Election Propaganda Time (in a free translation of HorárioGratuito de Propaganda Eleitoral in portuguese), coming back for the 2014 election runoff. On one hand, the discourse of "change" from "Muda Brasil" coalition, opposing to the PT government and, thereafter, sustained by the “Brazilian people’s urge to changes." On the other hand, the discourse of "change" with the refrain "New government, new ideas" supporting a program that represents the "future". We propose to work with comparative data, highlighted by the candidates themselves, which fertilize the economy theme and the adversary government’s project of deconstruction, as the discursive resources that intervene in the political construction through rhetoric, one of the key categories to the theoretical approach of Ernesto Laclau.