Undermining Liberal Democracy? Cross‐Level Opposition in Madrid Regional President's Speeches During the Pandemic Crisis

Abstract

This article offers a theoretical contribution to the study of political opposition during the Covid‐19 pandemic crisis. In liberal democracies, the crisis often amplified executive dominance, thereby weakening the institutional opposition's key role in providing scrutiny on government policies. While governmental emergency powers during the pandemic have been previously critically assessed, the strategic deployment of contestation by opposition actors has received less attention. Given the foundational role of "opposition" in liberal democratic theory, this oversight is notable. Recent scholarship has increasingly emphasised the importance of opposition as a pillar of democratic resilience. In the context of global democratic backsliding, the fundamentals of liberal democracy are at stake. This article examines a case from Spain, where Madrid's regional government positioned itself in direct opposition to the central government. Our conceptual analysis shows that parliamentary questions in the Madrid parliament were used by the incumbent, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, as a platform for what we call "cross‐level opposition." The research question is: How did this regional leader discursively construct political opposition by challenging the central government during the pandemic, and what does that mean for liberal democracy? Our findings reveal two key dynamics: the use of conceptual nodal points in Ayuso's rhetoric and the irregular nature of her parliamentary questions, without the prime minister facing her in the same parliamentary space. We argue that such forms of cross‐level opposition, while seemingly consistent with democratic contestation, can ultimately erode the norms and institutional integrity that underpin liberal democracy.