“You literally wrote this in your party manifesto”

Abstract In election debates, it is essential for politicians to try to steer the discussion to their own advantage and to the disadvantage of their opponent. One strategy to do so is exploiting the polyphony inherent in discourse, employing quotes, paraphrases and references to prior speech. In this study, we analyze an interaction from a Dutch election debate from 2021 to answer the question: ‘how is the voice of the opponent included in the debate discourse by politicians to steer the interaction to their own advantage?’ By recontextualizing an opponent’s words, the discussion can be managed by representing the other’s argumentation. Therefore, we speak about ‘constructed argumentation’ in debates, as the words of the other party are recontextualized to appear within a particular discussion to put pressure on the opponent to argue, force particular discussion points, and frame the other’s position. This practice is part of the interactional fabric of election debates.