THE RELEXICALIZATION IN POLITICAL DISCOURSE: THE EXAMPLE OF <em>POPULISM</em> THROUGH THE SPANISH PRESS

Abstract

The terms populism and populist have not been widely used in Spanish political language. Only with the onset of certain political regimes in Latin America at the end of the 20th century did both start to be relatively commmon. In Spain, with the arrival of Podemos, a new political party on the Spanish political , “populism” turned for a few months into a key term in the political discourse and became an integral part of Spanish political lexicon. This article explores the gradual stigmatisation of the term during those moths. During that period “populism” changed meaning and became a a weapon to destroy a political opponent.