Memes, provocation, attacks and AI: the PP's artillery on social media for 29-N

Madrid“They say it's good, I've read it”. That is how Alberto Núñez Feijóo defended the mysterious community manager of the PP on Friday, who has become one of the great protagonists of the November 29th electoral pre-campaign. With a combative, ruthless, ironic, and bold style, the popular party's posts on Instagram, TikTok, and X go viral quickly, appear in conventional media, and have been able to shake up the debate, unleashing support among their own and intensifying criticism among detractors. The PP's own profile justified the mutation it is undergoing a few days ago: “The Spanish government has stolen with both hands. Commissions, sausages, jewels, and gold. Prostitution and hitmen. And now they get picky? No. We won't let them get away with a single one. And neither will the PP's CM”, the populars said in a tweet.

The one that has had the most resonance is a video made with artificial intelligence, seen by more than two million people on X, where, among others, Leire Díez, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and Santos Cerdán appear confessing to the crimes for which they are being investigated and which they have always denied. The socialists are studying legal actions and the person known as the PSOE's plumber has filed a lawsuit against the PP for the crimes of slander with publicity, crimes against moral integrity, and digital identity theft.

But even more successful was a montage –also made with AI– of the kiss between Pedro Sánchez and Begoña Gómez that replaced his wife with José Luis Ábalos. It was seen by three million people on X and congratulations spread. The community manager boasted about it on TikTok claiming that he or she –their identity is unknown– speaks “the language of truth” and responded to the praise through the official PP profile on X: “The one who made a good signing is Getafe, who took Carvajal without paying a euro”. However, the most-viewed tweet –almost six million people– was the day after the election call: it mocked –in bad taste– a quadriceps rupture that minister Óscar Puente suffered three years ago.

Behind this tactic, there is a strategy to mobilize the electorate. In other words, it is not so much about convincing socialist voters to support Feijóo, as it is about ensuring that people who would not go to vote or would vote for Vox choose the PP ballot. “It is not designed for a swing voter or to change sides, but to mobilize their own. It makes sense; people are increasingly reluctant to be persuaded,” summarizes Xavier Tomàs, a political communication consultant, in conversation with ARA.

The expert maintains that the change in language and content displayed by the PP on social media “is good and makes sense” when there are only a few weeks left until the vote because the mobilization effect is, precisely, “just and only now.” A few days ago, the community manager of the PP gave an interview to El Mundo: “To achieve repercussions, you cannot do the same thing every day; notoriety comes because we pressed at the moment when there is the most focus on us,” he defended. “Through humor and enthusiasm, one can also beat the left to a pulp,” he added.

Doing politics without it seeming like politics

Other montages that the PP has disseminated are a photo made with AI where Pedro Sánchez is seen lying on his back, like a dog with a leash with the flag of Morocco; or a selfie of José Luis Ábalos with Jéssica Rodríguez –who was his partner and whom he plugged into two public companies– accompanied by the phrase “The force of love”, a slogan used by the PSOE.

Xavier Tomàs makes it clear that this will be the first electoral campaign where there will be “massive use” of artificial intelligence. Among the videos made with AI, there is one of the façade of the PSOE headquarters or that of a brothel with a banner that says “hypocrites”, or one of the party's former spokesperson, Montse Mínguez, who resigned due to the real estate dealings of her partner, showing an apartment as if she were a real estate agent. Even Feijóo has raised the tone on X: “Prostitutes with public money, orgies during a pandemic, and a political career with the money from prostitution. You can spare us the feminism lessons”, he retorted to Sánchez.

In a humorous vein, the PP has also addressed Fabrizio Romano, a sports journalist expert in transfers, to announce that Xavier García Albiol will be number 1 for Barcelona. After Feijóo claimed that a pizza receipt prevents squatters from being evicted, he shared a video in which a real delivery person actually went to the PSOE headquarters to bring a pizza with the excuse that this way the socialists will not have to leave Ferraz.

Xavier Tomàs believes that all of this is a “well-judged strategy” because political content—regardless of its leaning—makes people “leave” social media “sooner” than they do with commercial content and, therefore, “anything that involves doing politics without it looking like politics” makes people stay. He also warns that Madrid has its “own ecosystem” and is not convinced that the tone and style currently finding success “are replicable,” for example, in Catalonia or the Valencian Community. That said, he nuances that Instagram or TikTok have more impact and reach than X: “Elections are not won on X; it is not useful for reaching mass audiences,” he points out.