On Monday evening, RTVE's 24h channel held the debate of candidates for the Andalusian elections to be held on May 17th. 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 lecterns of public television. Xabier Fortes and Laura Clavero moderated the show. It was striking how four of the five political leaders (the only exception being Maíllo) wore some element of green in their attire, as a symbolic representation of the color of the Andalusian flag. A blazer, two ties, a pin, and a green bracelet became symbolic elements. A way to appropriate Andalusian identity and visualize this idea of belonging and sentiment 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 Junta took cover behind a pile of documentation that didn't even fit on his lectern. The PP candidate left on the floor, at his feet, several bundles of papers of considerable thickness that, halfway through the debate, he spread out a little more around him. He was the spitting image of the university student who shows up for an exam with an exaggerated volume of notes to seem like a diligent student. Or overwhelmed. In El intermedio on La Sexta, they noticed this detail and Dani Mateo quipped about this staging: “It wasn't clear if he was looking to respond to his rivals' attacks or if they would step 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. Not even if there was a real intention to display the amount of paperwork to boast about supposed exhaustive preparation. Or if perhaps they considered that, at the foot of the lectern, viewers at home would not 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 impression 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 looked 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 on the health of two thousand patients. A predictable and logical attack. The PP leader limited himself to lamenting that they used those women for political purposes. It is not the best argument, considering that public healthcare is, of course, electoral material. The paperwork was of no use to him.
