Re-interpretations of liberal democracy? The role of opposition in Spanish parliamentary debates during the COVID-19 pandemic

In this paper, we propose to analyse Spanish parliamentary debates during the COVID-19 pandemic and examine to what extent re-interpretations regarding liberal democracy in this multilevel context were presented. During the pandemic, especially the regional government of Madrid set itself against the central government of Spain, and the regional parliamentary debates showed, for instance, parliamentary questions addressed to the central government. Our analytical point of departure is the concept of opposition. As a liberal concept, it is important to assess its role in a democratic regime. Indeed, most recent and noteworthy essays on liberal democracy pay much of their attention to the role of opposition (Przeworski, 1991, 2018, 2019; Levitsky and Ziblatt, 2018). In turn, liberal democracy is at stake in the opposition's role, balancing the need to propose an alternative to the government and respect the game rules in its language and attitudes. The paper aims to answer the following research questions: To what extent and in what way (liberal) democracy is explicitly used and addressed as a contested concept in the debates? How is it raised? In what context? What are the strategic ideas behind? Is democracy used as a kind of empty signifier that can mean whatever suits best the interests? Do actors refer to a specific concept of democracy of "their" definition?