The latest: Abascal wins by sheer force of will and puffed-out chest.
Journalism is a territory of fine and porous borders. And so, the distance between "Let's write a piece to understand who votes for this option" and "Let's write a piece that reinforces our editorial narrative" is often invisible. The World Today I was writing an article that was an unintentional homage to Berlanga. It was titled "Shower of votes for Vox because of 'Abascal's stance' and his defense of 'bullfighting and hunting'" and was an anthropological immersion in the deep Teruel, where the far right has almost doubled its support. Most of the quotes that rise from the level of anecdote to the level of a general statement come from half a dozen people who, curiously or not, offer a collective but perfectly harmonized narrative. Some theses are interesting, such as when someone suggests that this is a movement symmetrical to that of the Transition, with young people from wealthy families voting for the PCE (Communist Party of Spain). But the rest are picturesque vignettes with pompous prose worthy of Pérez-Reverte ("Here, Vox isn't so much a party as Santiago Abascal in the flesh, with a beard and a back road," "bullfighting is a meeting point in towns where, sometimes, silence and solitude reign") or, quite simply, ofThe Worlds of Yupi"He doesn't believe that the vote for Vox is due to racism from the people themselves against the foreign population they work with and appreciate." Of course, that's why the party has made a hardline stance on immigration its main electoral appeal.
The piece makes no mention of the impact of social media—apparently it doesn't reach Teruel, only bullfighting does—and there's a complete lack of analysis of the fascination with neo-authoritarian systems among young people or the nostalgia for a Franco regime they didn't experience. A young man tells you, laughing, as you include in the article, that Abascal wins because he's wearing his vest tightly, and you put that in the headline and attribute the "vote shower" effect to this perceived lack of size. Perfectly normal.
