'El Hormiguero': Feijóo's great campaign act
The November 29th elections have kicked off a delirious race among entertainment programs to interview the candidates for the presidency. The competition is beginning to reveal that the media exercise has more to do with the comedians' egocentrism than with a public service desire to clarify who we should give our vote to. Meanwhile, all parties are calculating which comedian to cozy up to, in a game where seeking accomplices is more important than political transparency. We are turning campaigns into a pantomime of apprentices with pretensions of being journalists, and politicians into puppets fearful of judgment on social media.
On Wednesday night, we had a new example of it at The Anthill. Before receiving Alberto Núñez Feijóo, Pablo Motos stood in front of the camera and, in a serious tone, scolded Pedro Sánchez for not wanting to go on his show. He listed all the questions he would have liked to ask him: why he went on vacation while “they were invading Spain”, the Leire case, Ábalos, the prostitutes, Cerdán, whether he was in favor or against the squatters and the train accidents among other dirty laundry of the PSOE. “I would have asked him if this poisoned Spain is the one he dreamed of” said Motos. And after this delirious act of justice, like a hero of moral superiority, he took advantage of the applause of an enthusiastic audience to treat Feijóo to a triumphant entrance. “The success of the strike has been a failure” declared the candidate when asked about the general strike that same day. The PP did not need to select the audience as Vox did with The Revolt. The crowd was unconditional. Feijóo, in a theatrical gesture, brought a contract with twelve clauses signed by himself with his commitments as a candidate, apart from the party's electoral program. Pablo Motos gave him the program as a gift. Feijóo was able to give very long answers where there was no need to ask many follow-up questions, beyond a strange interest from the presenter to delve into and inquire into the nuances of the abortion law for adolescents that not even the candidate himself seemed to understand that insistence. Asked about pensions, Feijóo let out one of those historic television phrases that shows he knew he was playing at home: “Which is my camera?” he asked. And he directed his message, as if it were the golden minute, looking into the eyes of the pensioners who were watching him from home to reassure them. The director gradually closed the shot, to add emphasis to the message. In all the answers, Feijóo took his victory for granted: “I am going to win and I am going to govern” and he committed to returning to the program as president, within the first hundred days of his mandate.
When an interview with a politician consists of the host providing perfect assists so that the candidate can easily score a goal, that is not an interview, it is a rally entertained by the audience. The interview on El Hormiguero was Feijóo's great campaign event.
