This year the theme for the conference was "Languages at a crossroads: training, accreditation and context of their use” and was organised by the University of Jaen.

In his talk, Ricardo M. Jiménez presented the results of research into political language in Spain. The professor posed the question of whether we are looking at a new language.  Along with two other professors from Lancaster University he presented a lexical analysis of three interviews with Albert Rivera (leader of «Ciudadanos») and three with Pablo Iglesias (leader of «Podemos») published in the Spanish media («El Español», «Contexto», «El Mundo» and «La Vanguardia) (March-June 2016).

Based on a lexical analysis of key words in these speeches, using the aforementioned hybrid method, the results show, in the case of the leader of «Ciudadanos», a message based on the personalisation of the figure of Albert Rivera, a negative perspective that discredits other leaders and parties, as well as slogans.  In the case of the leader of «Podemos», it could be observed that his aim is to construct the image of the party, win over voters in Catalonia, and persuade IU and PSOE to join them.  In contrast to the leader of «Ciudadanos», Iglesias does not attempt to present a negative image of other parties.  The interviews with Pablo Iglesias show a predominance of expressiveness and emotions over ideological reflection. This is in line with the conclusions of the study by Gallardo-Enguix (2016) on the political language used on social networks; it can also be observed that «symbolic resources that express feelings and emotions jump on the soapbox provided by society by creating a new language».

«The language of both politicians contains new elements that can also be observed in the discourse of the new president of the USA, Donald Trump» said Ricardo M. Jiménez.