The Emotional Component in National Elections in Spain, 2015–2016

The national elections of 2015 and 2016 in Spain can be considered as elections that consolidate a change that began after the national elections of 2011. Both elections occurred in an important environment of tension marked by the weariness with the traditional policy and by the consolidation at the national level of new political actors. With these keys opens a new scene, not very different from other European countries, but also a new stage for analysis in which new elements necessarily emerge that are at the basis of the explanation of the decision-making process of the citizens. One of them is without a doubt, the emotional component. Starting from two own post-election studies, our purpose in this work is to identify the influence that the emotional component, the emotions, have been able to have in the definition of the political behaviour of the Spanish electors in the two aforementioned elections.