Juanma Moreno's paperwork
On Monday night, RTVE's 24h channel held the debate of candidates for the Andalusian elections to be held on May 17. Juanma Moreno Bonilla (PP), María Jesús Montero (PSOE), Manuel Gavira (Vox), Antonio Maíllo (Por Andalucía), and José Ignacio García Sánchez (Adelante Andalucía) occupied the usual podiums of public television. Xabier Fortes and Laura Clavero moderated the spectacle. It was striking how four out of the five political leaders (the only exception being Maíllo) wore some green element in their attire, as a symbolic representation of the color of the Andalusian flag. A blazer, two ties, a pin, and a green armband became symbolic elements. A way to appropriate Andalusian identity and visualize that idea of belonging and feeling for the territory. Instead, what should have been a subtle reference turned into a forced scenic artifice.
In a debate where the general approach consisted of going against Juanma Moreno as the favorite, the president of the Board of Directors took cover behind a pile of documentation that wouldn't even fit on his podium. The PP candidate left on the floor, by his feet, some considerable bundles of papers that, halfway through the debate, had spread out a bit more around him. He was the living image of the university student who shows up for the exam with an exaggerated volume of notes to appear like a diligent student. Or overwhelmed. On El intermedio on La Sexta, they noticed this detail, and Dani Mateo joked about this staging: “It was unclear whether he was trying to respond to his rivals' attacks or prevent them from stepping on his work”.
In contrast to the other candidates, it was not clear whether that scattering of papers worked in his favor or against him. Nor was it clear if there was a real intention to display the amount of paperwork to boast of supposed exhaustive preparation. Or if perhaps they considered that, at the foot of the podium, viewers at home wouldn't see the complementary file he carried in case he was caught out without knowing the lesson. The rigidity of televised electoral debates can create the misleading idea that what happens at carpet level is not seen on screen, as if it were excluded from the image. Was it a staging or a miscalculation? More than an advanced student, he seemed like the student who needed a cheat sheet to pass.
But the most surprising thing was Moreno Bonilla's lack of preparation when he was reproached for the scandal of errors and omissions in the screening of breast cancer in public healthcare, which has had consequences for the health of two thousand patients. A predictable and logical attack. The PP leader limited himself to lamenting that those women were used for political purposes. It is not the best argument, considering that public healthcare is, of course, electoral matter. The paperwork served him for nothing.