At times, the RTVE debate seemed like a remake of Con la muerte en los talones, by Alfred Hitchcock. Everyone was talking about Alberto Núñez Feijóo –up to 22 times he was mentioned on the set–, but the character did not end up appearing. Like the spy George Kaplan in the movie, who is mistaken for an advertising executive played by Cary Grant. Also in the debate, Pedro Sánchez and Yolanda Díaz tried to pass off Santiago Abascal as Feijóo-Kaplan, because they defined him as his representative before the cameras. But it was not, although both shared invisibility in the script.
Was Feijóo right to refuse to go to RTVE? Surely not: he gave Pedro Sánchez a second chance, allowed the president and Yolanda Díaz to appear as a solvent ticket and even gave the impression that Santiago Abascal is not as fierce as he is painted. In addition, the debate took place in a respectful environment - nothing to do with face to face -, they did not step on each other in their interventions and each one explained what they wanted. The meeting was so versatile that the presenter, Xabier Fortes, encouraged them to debate more intensely – and even to interrupt each other – when they had been on the program for twenty minutes without a single spark flying. The most tense moments occurred when gender violence was discussed and Díaz told Abascal that he was not afraid of him and to stop laughing at women, while the Vox leader asked her and Sánchez what exactly they understood by a woman.
The leader of the PP leads the polls and did not want to risk more debates. It was a perfectly designed strategy. But it did not have the expected effect. His non-appearance was not understood and the civilized tone of the discussion focused on his person, which led the face-to-face to an impracticable terrain. The high audience – almost a 30% share – shows that he was interested. Sánchez took advantage of his absence to blame him for not having come because he was ashamed to appear with his partner.
The cost of his absence may be less, but it was an act of blatant weakness for me to see him from the sofa at home instead of at the lectern, tearing up the corduroy.
