Sánchez crushes "enemy" chat show interview
Feijóo (PP) is doing his best to hide as much as possible from live TV and debates
On one end of the journalism-politicians spectrum, you have something like Jeremey Paxman (BBC) brow-beating British politicians into a quivering mess live on air, repeatedly hammering scornful questions at them until they blubber out some mix of the talking point they’re supposed to try and get across and whatever is in their heads in that instant as they stumble through the interview, sweating and twisting in their seats. On the other end, you have what happened with Pedro Sánchez last night on right-slanted El Hormiguero, which is supposed to be “enemy territory” for socialist politicians.
The questions and the tone were more chat show than Paxman-like interrogation but they weren’t terrible and they got into some matters that were notionally very tricky for the PM, like the criminal code reform that has let loads of rapists and child abusers out of jail early or got them reduced sentences. Other important issues, such as the Socialist Party’s relationship with Basque separatist party Bildu or what has really happened with Morocco and the Western Sahara, were not mentioned, but overall it was not an awful attempt for an evening chat show, from the point of view of the questions.
It didn’t matter though. Sánchez just blew them all off, engaging the host, Pablo Motos, in a dominating manner on all of them and explaining, arguing, selling his justifications with apparent conviction (or was it just preparation and politics) and whatever passes for conversational normality on a late-night live chat show with three million people watching. There was even repeated applause for the PM from whoever was really in the audience (there are some rumours about audience fixing, which the programme has denied) that left Motos looking a little dumbfounded on his own show. This was supposed to be the difficult interview, the political bludgeoning of Sánchez before the general election The hour on live TV, though, in “enemy territory”, was a triumph for the PM.
On the right, PP leader Feijóo is mostly running from the media. The socialists’ six-debates-with-Sánchez suggestion was rejected. The conservative leader has so far agreed to just one head-to-head debate with Sánchez, on Antena 3. Yesterday, Spaniards learnt that he is now refusing even to do a debate with Sánchez on public channel RTVE, Spain’s version of the BBC. Feijóo keeps making “mistakes” in his prepared speeches that instantly end up on social media. If he can’t even make it through prepared remarks at friendly party rallies and events without making stupid blunders, it’s no wonder his handlers want to reduce his live TV exposure to a minimum, never mind head-to-head time with Sánchez, who presumably would crush him like he just crushed the Pablo Motos chat show. Feijóo is on the same live show tonight. He must be nervous today.
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