A political face-off is like a gun duel in the Wild West. One step, two steps and boom. In principle, the one who unholsters first wins. It is of little use to try to boast of honesty if the rival has already pulled the trigger without contemplation. Even if the data is not accurate or is misrepresented. Rebuttal after the fact is a consolation prize. This is what happened on Monday night on the muddy set of Atresmedia. Television is not the Senate. Sánchez sold expectations that he failed to fulfill and Feijóo emptied his dialectical weapon during practically the 100 minutes.
The debate was rough from the first minute. Maybe that's why the night was lived with intensity on the most coffee-making social network, Twitter. Elon Musk still allows these evenings to be enjoyed. There were several central themes: the "SuperVox rubber band", Bildu and the horrifying slogan "que et voti Txapote" (remember: in a discussion about any issue of violence, the sensible position is always to take a position of the victim side), the Falcon (which all presidents have used and will use for security reasons), the cheat pact to allow the most voted list to rule, or the role of the two moderators.
Especially commented on was the controversy over the verification of some economic data that Feijóo offered. Sánchez was not quick to refute them, although the networks later took care of this. Namely, Rajoy has not created more jobs than the current Government or energy is not more expensive in Spain than in Europe. But the job of dismantling "the mountain of lies" should not have been the responsibility of the tweeters, but of the opposite, in this case, of Sánchez.
On the set of Atresmedia it was also demonstrated that the political debate has become impoverished. It's something that happens almost weekly in Parliament, but it's another thing to demonstrate it in front of a massive audience. González, Aznar, Zapatero, Rajoy... their predecessors were more constructive. The loser in this case is democracy, that is, all of us. We must not forget that the majority of citizens consider politics to be the main social problem. Neither Sánchez nor Feijóo thought about it during the face-to-face.
Mud does not suit the country. Many Spaniards remain outraged and the face-to-face, rightly, reaffirmed their discomfort. Despite everything, we will always have the memes. What would politics be without social media?
