Speech portraits: three leaders of the presidential race in Ukraine

Each of the three candidates who occupy the first lines of the ratings during the election campaign in Ukraine has its own speech habits and recognizable techniques. Voice of America proposes to compile so-called speech personality portraits for each of the leaders of the presidential race - Vladimir Zelensky, Yulia Tymoshenko and current President Petro Poroshenko.

Collage: Servant of the People / Facebook, Depositphotos

Vladimir Zelensky: “Everything that our government undertakes does not work”

Let's start not with the current president, but with a new person in Ukrainian politics - showman Vladimir Zelensky. He chose an informal, very conversational style to communicate with the audience. Zelensky uses phrases such as “the authorities have already hit the bottom,” addressing “guys” to the Internet audience, and the expression “a complete bastard.” “It starts with a T, it ends with a complete bummer,” for example, Zelensky says about tariffs.

He does not use beautiful metaphors and epithets, does not include pathos, does not quote classics, as the current president of Ukraine likes to do.

Photo: Instagram / zelenskiy_official

At the same time, Zelensky’s rhetoric is permeated by opposing Petro Poroshenko. He beats his slogan "Army. Tongue. Faith ", saying:" They plundered the army, artificially divided people into languages, therefore you have no faith. "

It complements one more slogan of Poroshenko: “There are many candidates and one president”.

“There are many candidates, there are many presidents, but there is only one law,” says Zelensky and adds, “We will choose someone other than you.”

“Everything that our government undertakes does not work,” he declares.

At the same time, he does not promise anything concrete, noting that he wants to “change something” and “present a new country”.

Zelensky’s peculiar slogan is how to become president and at the same time remain human.

In other words, his rhetoric is the rhetoric of “pushing away” from the current president, asserting himself through the denial of the other.

We also find the same technique - affirmation through negation - in Yulia Tymoshenko.

Yulia Tymoshenko: “Ukraine has exhausted its historical supply of suffering”

“Poroshenko Petrov Alekseevichs are a dime a dozen in Ukraine,” she says in an interview with Dmitry Gordon.

It is not enough Pedro in Brazil! And he claims that Ukrainian politics needs to return honor, conscience and decency. At the same time, Tymoshenko does not directly declare who exactly these positive qualities are associated with, but it is assumed that the viewer should guess.

“The Ukrainian authorities lack sympathy for people, experience the pain of ordinary people,” says Tymoshenko. She herself shows sensitivity abundantly. One of her favorite techniques is an appeal to her own feelings, suffering and metaphors imbued with emotions and pathos.

Фото: Depositphotos

Tymoshenko uses such expressions as “these moments are carved forever in my heart,” “the cemeteries of our illusions are enormous,” “we learned to cry without tears and suffer without a groan,” “Ukraine has exhausted its historical reserve of suffering” and so on.

The words “tears” and “suffering” are among the most frequently encountered in the language of Tymoshenko.

Another of her techniques is the rhetoric of repentance. “I honestly admit that I made mistakes,” “maybe I wasn’t as good at understanding people as I would like,” “I want to ask for your forgiveness,” “but I never allowed myself to give up and, God forbid, to run away ", she says.

Tymoshenko also asserts herself by denying the current government, which, according to her, "killed hope and faith after the Revolution of Dignity."

And, finally, Petro Poroshenko. What does his speech portrait consist of? Here are the main features.

Petro Poroshenko: “Mr. Putin, you can’t wait!”

Tendency to pathos, love for the words “big”, “resolute”, “determination”.

Abundant use of quotations and references to literary sources. “As Vasily Symonenko brilliantly wrote: “My people are, my people will always be, nothing will cross out my people,” Poroshenko says in his election speech.

Verbosity and love for detail, while the speaker has a good reaction to what is happening around: “You see, the sun is out, this is a good sign!”

Semantic repetitions: “I repeat once again: more recently, the Day of the Russian Army was a Ukrainian national holiday. And its cancellation was my first presidential decision. ”

Фото: Depositphotos

Sarcastic metaphors: “All our pillars are surrounded by doves of peace, but their shadow is two-headed.”

Rhetorical questions: "Why are fugitive oligarchs so rampant in these elections?"

And the appeal to the virtual interlocutor: "Mr. Putin, do not wait!".

But if other candidates use the technique of asserting themselves through Poroshenko’s denial, then what is he denying? In fact, every speech he makes is built on the affirmation of Ukraine through the denial of Russia, pushing away from Moscow. Wherever Petro Poroshenko speaks, he talks about opposing the Kremlin’s hybrid aggression, about the destruction of Putin’s plans to bring pro-Russian candidates to power in Ukraine, calls for strength, reminding that “Moscow does not believe in tears” - Moscow recognizes only strength, including Ukrainian strength.

The fact that the rhetoric is built, first of all, not on a proposal, but on denial, repulsion from the source of pain and destruction, speaks only of one thing - how deep the wound has been inflicted on Ukraine over these five years. A wound that continues to be opened by war and is not allowed to heal.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Five leaders of the presidential race in Ukraine: briefly about each

One week before the elections in Ukraine, humorist Vladimir Zelensky turned out to be the leader of the presidential race

Forbes - about democracy and presidential elections in Ukraine with a record 42 candidates

Yulia Tymoshenko announced participation in the presidential elections in Ukraine

Kolomoisky: Poroshenko seeks absolute power, despite the Constitution

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