TRANSLATION AS A CATALYST FOR EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IN CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL LEADERSHIP: PROMOTING EMPATHY, TRUST, AND INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

In multilingual and culturally diverse societies, political leadership depends not only on policy competence but also on the ability to communicate effectively across linguistic and cultural boundaries. Translation and interpreting provide important channels through which political messages, public concerns, institutional positions, and culturally embedded meanings move between communities. This conceptual article examines translation as a potential catalyst for emotional intelligence in contemporary political leadership, with particular attention to empathy, trust, and intercultural communication. Drawing on scholarship in emotional intelligence, Translation Studies, political discourse, and intercultural communication, the paper argues that translation can create conditions that encourage political leaders to attend more carefully to the perspectives, emotions, identities, and communicative expectations of diverse audiences. It further contends that ethically responsible translation can support trust by reducing linguistic exclusion, clarifying meaning, and improving accessibility in political communication. At the same time, translation is not inherently neutral or beneficial: choices made by translators, interpreters, institutions, and political actors may reproduce ideology, power asymmetries, or cultural misunderstanding. The article therefore proposes an interdisciplinary framework in which translation is understood as a communicative and relational practice capable of supporting emotionally intelligent leadership when guided by accuracy, cultural sensitivity, transparency, and respect for linguistic diversity. The paper concludes by highlighting implications for political leaders, translators, interpreters, educators, and public institutions