The austerity Chancellor: Angela Merkel’s image construction in La Vanguardia

Abstract

The Spanish perception of German Chancellor Angela Merkel has undergone a qualitative change. Negative evaluations have increased as we approach the present, due to her increasing role in the national sphere because of her leadership in the European Union. Taking these facts as a starting point, this article notes the influence of a major national newspaper (La Vanguardia) in the media construction of this de facto leader. Linking with sociological surveys, we check the media influence in the formation of perceptions through the analysis of the opinion pieces published during the last three German federal elections, in 2005, 2009 and 2013. The formal, stylistic and content aspects are taken into account in the analysis of the opinion pieces, always taking mass media as key players in the formation of judgments. In this sense, we analyze the evolution of an increasingly unfavorable tendency toward a political figure dubbed by media as “the cold owner of Europe”.