Political Emotions in Crisis: A Comparative Study of Alberto Fernández and AMLO During COVID ‐19

ABSTRACT

This article compares the emotional strategies of Mexican president López Obrador and Argentine president Fernández during the early phase of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Combining discourse analysis, affect theory and prosodic analysis, it examines six presidential speeches to explore how affect and voice contribute to political legitimacy. The study introduces two concepts: affective disobedience (AMLO) and affective‐institutional legitimacy (Fernández), highlighting contrasting responses to crisis. Findings show that emotional governance in Latin America relies on culturally embedded styles of communication, where prosody and discourse jointly shape leadership ethos and public trust under conditions of uncertainty.