Politics in Spanish – Vocabulary and Phrases

/ Other vocabulary topics

Are you studying Spanish, and want to start a conversation about politics with your Spanish-speaking friends? Do you need to write a text in Spanish that includes political concepts? You’ve come to the right place!

In this post, we are going to learn the basic political terms in Spanish. We will start with some phrases, and then we provide several vocabulary lists.

Enjoy and become an expert at talking about politics in Spanish! 🙂

Contents

Phrases
Vocabulary: People and ideologies
Other vocabulary

Phrases

Me interesa mucho la política.
I’m very interested in politics.
¿Te interesa la política?
Are you interested in politics?
No confío en ningún político.
I don’t trust any politician.
Las elecciones son el próximo 3 de noviembre.
The elections will be held on November 3.
¿A quién vas a votar?
Who are you going to vote for?
¿Quién ganará las elecciones?
Who will win the election?
El candidato conservador ha ganado con un 51 por ciento de los votos.
The conservative candidate has won with 51 percent of the vote.
El congreso ha aprobado una nueva ley del aborto.
Congress has passed a new abortion law.
Las encuestas dicen que los demócratas tienen opciones en Florida.
Polls say Democrats have options in Florida.
Los partidos de izquierda van a formar una coalición.
The left-wing parties will form a coalition.

Vocabulary: People and ideologies

People in politics

El presidente	President
El vicepresidente	Vice President
El primer ministro	Prime Minister
El jefe de estado	head of state
El congresista	congressman (in some countries, like the US)
El diputado	congressman (in other countries, like Spain)
El senador	senator
El ministro de Economía	Minister of Economy
El secretario de Educación	Secretary of Education
El político	politician
El candidato	candidate
El portavoz	spokesperson
El rey	king
La reina	queen
El príncipe	prince
La princesa	princess
El votante	voter

Ideologies

The left column shows the ideology, and the right column shows the person with that ideology.

Ideology	Meaning	Person
El conservadurismo	conservatism	conservador
El progresismo	progressivism	progresista
El socialismo	socialism	socialista
El comunismo	communism	comunista
El anarquismo	anarchism	anarquista
El liberalismo	liberalism	liberal
El capitalismo	capitalism	capitalista
El fascismo	fascism	fascista
El centrismo	centrism	centrista
La izquierda	the left	izquierdista
La derecha	the right	derechista

Other vocabulary

Political regimes

La monarquía	monarchy
La república	republic
La democracia	democracy
La dictadura	dictatorship

Actions

votar	to vote
meter la papeleta en la urna	to put the ballot in the ballot box
gobernar	to govern
aprobar una ley	to pass a law
corromperse	to become corrupt
formar una coalición	to build a coalition
nombrar a un ministro / secretario	to appoint a minister / secretary
dimitir	to resign
postularse a presidente / presentarse a presidente	to run for president
dar un discurso	to give a speech
celebrar un mitin	to hold a political rally
hacer campaña	to campaign

Other Concepts

El parlamento	parliament
El congreso	congress
El senado	senate
La Casa Blanca	White House
El ala oeste	west wing
El despacho oval	Oval office
El día de las elecciones	election day
La votación	the vote
El debate televisado	televised debate
La encuesta	opinion poll
El gobierno	government
La ideología	ideology
La oposición	opposition
La papeleta	ballot
La urna	ballot box
El partido político	political party
Las primarias	primaries
La campaña	campaign
moderado	moderate
radical	radical