Manual to lower the tone of political discussion

After Pedro Sánchez's call for elections, Spanish television stations have increased the level of political tension. Even Ana Rosa Quintana, who has been demanding the end of the legislature for years, seemed angry when the moment finally arrived. She has been indignant at any decision by Sánchez for so many months that on the day her wishes came true, she did not know how to change her mood. How difficult it is to stop the informative hamster wheel when you have been pushing it by inertia for so many years.

Meanwhile, on Espejo público circumstances were glimpsed that anticipate the tone of the campaign: how the battle that parties maintain on social networks will be transported to traditional media. For a long time now, television stations have been nourished by the digital world. The low level that parties use, especially on X, is a good breeding ground to bring it to the political talk shows of the magazines.

This Tuesday, Susanna Griso connected live with Borja Sémper, spokesperson for the PP. She commented on the bitter tone of the disputes between his party and the PSOE. In the case of the Socialists, the most vehement is Minister Óscar Puente, who uses scornful tweets as a hallmark of his personality. On Monday, he attacked Feijóo by showing some photos of the opposition leader and claiming that he smells of fear. The official PP account responded with a video from 2023 with a comment that said: “Miedo le tenías tú al esguince”. In the images, from the time when Puente was mayor of Valladolid, he was seen lying on the ground after a fall while visiting a construction site. The man was screaming in pain, with some terrible groans of despair. The minister responded to the clumsy attack with an archive photo of his knee, in the hospital, with a scar full of staples, after an operation for a torn quadriceps. Puente called them miserable and the PSOE account did too.

In Susanna Griso's talk show, both she and the contributors lamented that way of reacting and that both parties were lowering the level of political discussion. The presenter asked the PP spokesperson for explanations regarding that reaction, and Sémper shrugged off any responsibility for it. He declared that, for two years, he had made the determination not to talk about Twitter or any tweet. “Public conversation has degraded to such an extent that we have accepted things that should not have been accepted, even ministers speaking in that tone. The mistake is taking the bait”, he declared. One of the contributors reproached him that the PP had also done so, and he limited himself to warning that the campaign would be very tough and that it was necessary to talk about the problems of the Spanish people.

Curiously, however, Espejo público played the entire video that the PP had posted and gave more prominence to the images of Óscar Puente moaning and crying in pain. Because the way to elevate the discourse is by dipping bread into political miseries with cynicism.