Suárez and Calvo-Sotelo on the small screen: a compared study of the television leadership during the democratic Transition in Spain (1976-1982)

Abstract

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Between 1976 and 1982, Spain lived an intense political and media context in the process of transition to democracy. During this period, video-politics broke out and it influenced the way politics were conducted and the leadership of politicians. Throughout those years, two presidents led the process of change: Adolfo Suárez and Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo. Two different leaders: in their way of “doing politics” and in the way in which they used television to connect with society. This paper offers an analysis of, firstly, how both politicians understood their relationship with public television (TVE) and, secondly, what formats they used and the discourse of the television broadcasts that they starred in. To answer these questions, we conducted a thorough review of the existing literature on the topic, the published testimonies of protagonists, the Calvo-Sotelo archive, a content analysis of Televisión Española’s archives and the press published during Transition. The findings of this study clearly indicate that TVE marked the evolution of both presidents who, from the beginning, put in place different strategies to match their work from the Executive using public television. On the other hand, the shadow of Suarez and the way in which he had used television during the Transition, did not abandon Calvo-Sotelo whose decisions of media leadership were always aimed at countering the weight of the Suárez’s legacy.

Keywords

Suárez, Calvo-Sotelo, leadership, Spanish transition, television, RTVE, political communication