Abstract
In this paper, we will explore the impacts of Coronavirus crisis on the official political speech in Tunisia through the analysis of the speech of the president Kais Said and the way he dealt with the pandemic. The goal behind choosing this approach is to investigate the extent to which the official speech goes in harmony with the social and economic rights of Tunisian citizens in terms of medication and food . Then, we will explore the impacts of this speech on the most vulnerable people and the attention given by the official government to these social categories in the context of particular circumstances imposed by Covid-19 and to see whether they were considered by the decision-makers as part of special measures and procedures taken . In fact, we opted for the segmentation of the president rhetorical performance as it represents an adequate material to be displayed, analysed, and criticized both qualitatively and quantitative. To do so, the rhetorical performance is to be investigated from linguistic and communicative standpoints. The analysis of the president’s rhetorical performance about Coronavirus and the social and economic counter-measures against Covid-19 require the analysis of the context of this speech: its basics, the encoded meaning, the explicit messages and their implications. This can’t be achieved unless we analyze the metaphors that conveyed the meaning intended by this rhetorical performance and that will consequently reveal the nature of social and political approaches adapted by the president Kais Said.
