Speech Strategies in Presidential Candidate Debates

The article is dedicated to the presidential candidate debate between the current President Rumen Radev and Prof. Anastas Gerdzhikov. The research traces whether their vocabulary adheres to the official discourse, how dynamic it is and whether it answers to the requirements of high speech etiquette. On the other hand, it examines certain phonetic features, such as tempo, intonation, logical stress, repetitions, etc. The study directly observes at what point the debaters abandon the formal high speech etiquette and lose ground in the argument. The object of linguistic analysis is also the length of sentences, the number of words used, and self-talk. Finally, the question of what is the goal of this is also raised: whether they eloquently persuade the electorate and draw approval and interest upon themselves, or whether they achieve the opposite - the disapproval and disaffection of the audience.