Democratic credentials and the ‘other(s)’ in the discourse of the Spanish Partido Popular, 1977–2015 David Atkinson and Cinta Ramblado University of Limerick, Ireland In this paper we argue that aspects of the discourse of the governing party in Spain at the time of writing, the Partido Popular, and its predecessor (1976– 1989), Alianza Popular, reveal a marked continuity in its self-presentation and its representation of its adversaries, spanning the entire period from its origins in the immediate post-Franco period of the late 1970s to the present. We conclude that the type of construction we describe can be found in the discourse of many of the party’s most prominent fgures, that it is central to the entire historical trajectory of AP/PP, and in some cases is in the process of becoming if anything more explicit. Keywords: critical discourse analysis, political implicature, ‘othering’, delegitimation, Spain, Partido Popular 1. Introduction In this paper we argue that aspects of the discourse of the governing party in Spain at the time of writing, the Partido Popular (henceforth PP), and its predecessor (1976–1989), Alianza Popular (henceforth AP), reveal a marked continuity in its self-presentation and its representation of its adversaries, spanning the entire period from its origins in the immediate post-Franco period of the late 1970s to the present. Te core of this continuity is the particular nature of the party’s positive self- presentation and the ways in which it vilifes its opponents and critics. Clearly, both positive presentation of one’s own party, and innuendo against, and excoria- tion of, the ‘other’ or ‘others’ is a fundamental, and unremarkable, feature of the discourse of political parties. However, what is striking about the discourse of the Journal of Language and Politics (Published online: 1 Dec 2017), 1–19. doi 10.1075/jlp.17012.atk issn 1569–2159 / e-issn 1569–9862 © John Benjamins Publishing Company goteborgsswe/6 IP: 130.241.16.16 On: Thu, 14 Dec 2017 13:03:53