The epiphora is a rhetorical figure as old as it is effective, which was already used by Aristotle, but which probably had Barack Obama as its most determined defender. The epiphora consists of repeating a phrase throughout a speech, at the end of each paragraph. If it is placed at the beginning, then it is called an anaphora. In both cases, the speaker tries to insist on an idea several times so that it is remembered, while thereby contributing to give structure and rhythm to the parliament. Those who go to listen to their politicians at public events tend to be unable to remember them, but with these linguistic figures it is intended that they at least retain a fraction of the text.
In her speech at the PP protest demonstration against an amnesty for those accused of the process, Isabel Díaz Ayuso underlined her criticisms with the phrase “no way”. It is a sentence that leaves no margin: neither to the parties that support the investiture of Pedro Sánchez, nor to that sector of the popular people who would have spoken to the leadership of Junts to see if there was any loophole to negotiate four votes for Alberto Núñez Feijóo
The president of Madrid read the speech, without giving herself room to the improvisation that she likes so much and that gives her such good results. But she had been warned that she could not deviate from the script, lest she become the star of the day and steal the plan and the applause from Feijóo.
The idea of ??the epiphora comes from Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, his skilled advisor, who once contributed to bringing José María Aznar to La Moncloa with that repetitive “váiase, señor González”. Epiphora is in fashion. Or do we not remember Yolanda Díaz repeating during the labor reform debate that “it’s not smoke, it’s people”. Not to mention Jordi Cuixart’s “we’ll do it again”, in one of his first public speeches when he was released, which he repeated several times.
Anyway, bad when things need to be emphasized, since it seems we don’t quite believe them. Spin doctors must have read The Happy World by Aldous Huxley, where the author warns that “sixty-two thousand four hundred repetitions create a truth”. As if the truth doesn’t exist when we say it just once.
