Sánchez vs sanchismo, late-night debates and Feijóo's difficult week
Highlights from an eventful campaign that ends today
You probably know who Pedro Sánchez is. But what is sanchismo?
No, it is not an attempt by the Spanish Prime Minister to establish a philosophy for the ages. He is ambitious, but he is not Karl Marx.
Sanchismo is a concept skilfully created by the right over the last five years—a catchphrase that encapsulates their disdain for Sánchez and his government's policy. As election season approached, the right spoke of the need to "repeal sanchismo". It has been their main slogan during the campaign that ends today.
In a way, sanchismo is an empty or floating signifier, a concept loose enough to mean different things to different people. If you don't like the prime minister’s ambition, this is what sanchismo will mean for you. If you hate his shift in foreign policy towards Morrocco and Western Sahara, this can also be sanchsimo. Do you hate his agreements with the far-left and pro-independence parties? Sanchismo again. And the list could go on.
Interestingly, the true experts in floating signifiers in Spain are the far-left Podemos. Inspired by the ideas of Argentinian sociologist Ernesto Laclau in his book On Populist Reason, the founders of Podemos drew many of their tactics from the post-Marxist thinker. Laclau saw these floating signifiers as a mechanism to agglutinate people's demands in vague, imprecise terms, thereby fostering unity within a (populist) movement. This suggests that the Spanish right (PP and Vox) is veering towards populist strategies—a phenomenon we see across the globe.
One of Sánchez's biggest missteps has been leaving sanchismo unchallenged for most of his term. In recent years, the prime minister has turned down interviews with unfriendly media. His communications plan often consisted of lengthy speeches in press conferences and parliamentary sessions. When he did have interviews, he preferred to discuss policy and rarely addressed criticism from the right wing.
However, following the disappointing results in the local elections and the subsequent call of the 23 July vote, Sánchez seemingly had an epiphany. It was time to climb down from the ivory tower and join in the rough and tumble of party politics. Before the campaign kicked off, Sánchez toured almost all radio and TV channels, seemingly accepting all interviews on offer, including with his fiercest critics, late-night and humour shows. He was even interviewed in a podcast run by Gen Zers to discuss Taylor Swift, memes and music festivals.
Aware that many citizens are more familiar with sanchismo than with his government's policy or himself, the prime minister spoke more personally, addressing how he and his family experience attacks on them. In its light, acceptable version, sanchismo is valid criticism of Sánchez's way of doing politics. But in its most extreme one, sanchismo is a collection of senseless lies and insults (illegitimate prime minister, power chauvinist, traitor, felon, squatter of the presidential palace, hooligan, narcissistic, and a long etc).
"Sanchismo is a seven-headed monster—a bubble inflated with manipulations, lies, and also malice", he often repeats in interviews and rallies. Sánchez also argues that there is an "imbalance" between the number of right-leaning media outlets perpetuating the notion of sanchismo and the actual sociological reality of the country, which he believes leans more towards progressive values.
In one interview, he draws a parallel between the lies and half-truths propagated by the right-wing in Spain and the conspiracy theory regarding Obama's nationality propagated by Fox News in the US.
We will witness, on highly popular TV shows, people who only represent themselves pontificating and insulting without the right to reply. They will invent outrageous statements, and nothing is new because what they are doing is copying the methods of their American masters.
— Pedro Sánchez
Is this a sound tactic? It's a mixed bag. While there is truth in Sánchez's grievances, and he has been quite skilful in handling the interviews, some voters might think that the prime minister is complaining about the rules of the democratic game: in a pluralistic media landscape, some media are going to be against you. He should have countered that sooner during his term. Doing it now looks like a patch-up.
Late-night political debates
First of all, allow me a moment to honour Spanish citizens who, like me, watch election debates that start at 10pm and end at around 12am. It's a real commitment to democracy through sleep deprivation.
In an attempt to bump up its poll numbers, Pedro Sánchez proposed to hold 6 debates, but lucky for us, no one listened to him. Yet the prime minister did not shy away from any chance to attend a debate.
The main Spanish TV channels held three debates: a face-to-face discussion between Sánchez and the PP candidate, Alberto Nuñez Feijóo, on a private channel; one with the seven leading political forces in parliament; and a last one with the three main parties (PSOE, PP, Vox; the PP declined to join this one).
Flooding the zone with shit
The face-to-face debate presented Sánchez with a golden opportunity to turn polls around. While it wasn't a complete disaster, it certainly didn't go as well as he had hoped. Sánchez, who reportedly skipped rallies for four days to prepare for the debate, underestimated his opponent, Alberto Nuñez Feijóo, the PP candidate, who came prepared to throw the prime minister off balance.
Feijóo's strategy was effective, although far from fair. He employed the Gish Gallop, a technique that consists in bombarding your opponent with a barrage of facts, regardless of their accuracy or truthfulness. Feijóo employed it already in his first intervention, setting the frame for the remainder of the debate.
Despite having some good moments, Sánchez fell into the trap of losing his patience and repeatedly interrupting Feijóo whenever he felt uncomfortable or confronted with falsehoods. The socialist candidate never fully recovered from the initial blow.
The real losers in this clash were the citizens (among them independent online creators who blog about the elections), who had to endure hours of crossed accusations and misleading information late at night. The candidates barely mentioned any proposal for the future: The debate was held on 10 July, a day Spain suffered a heatwave (with some cities reaching up to 48º). However, the candidates chose to dedicate more time to ETA, a terrorist group that disbanded in 2011, than climate change. Read more information on how the debate went here.
The Gish Gallop is a tactic employed by Donald Trump, and it is the reason why debating the former US President was so difficult. After the barrage of misinformation and half-truths, it leaves the respondent scrambling to counter each point, leaving very little time to say anything original or lead the debate. This article by The Atlantic has some tips for countering a Gish Galloper. It also reveals that Steve Bannon, Trump's old-time adviser, referred to it with a less abstract term: flood the zone with shit.
Waiting for Feijóo
Alberto Nuñez Feijóo refused to attend a debate between the four national parties on Spain's public broadcaster held on 19 July. As Pedro Sánchez debated with Yolanda Díaz of Sumar and Vox's Santiago Abascal, Feijóo's absence felt a bit like Theater of the Absurd.
"This debate was attended by candidates for leader of the opposition", said Feijóo the day after. This was the PP's intended effect, to set him out as the prime minister even ahead of the vote. In contrast, Sánchez would come across as a desperate, second-tier candidate scrambling to collect every single vote possible.
It would have also been a risky move for Feijóo to attend the debate. The second week of Feijóo's campaign has proven more challenging than the first, with a series of interviews where he struggled to answer questions about the claims he made in the face-to-face debate (more on that in the next section). While missing the debate showed a lack of respect for citizens and the rest of the candidates, strategically speaking, Feijóo was probably right to stay home. His silly excuse, though —that he had pulled a muscle in his back—was less than necessary.
Summer vibes give way to mail vote conspiracies
The Popular Party kicked off their election campaign with a lighthearted touch, airing a beach-themed video that promised a "blue summer”. It was a clever wordplay on their brand colour and the iconic Spanish TV series Verano Azul.
With the wind blowing in his favour after the face-to-face debate, Feijóo would have loved it if elections were last Sunday. His second week of campaigning has been difficult compared to the walk in the park that was the first.
In a series of interviews, Feijóo has been challenged to explain some of his false claims in the face-to-face debate. In other instances, he has made a series of awkward statements of his own volition. Let's see some of those:
In a series of interviews, Feijóo has been challenged to explain some of his false claims in the face-to-face debate. In other instances, he has made a series of awkward statements of his own volition. Let's see some of those:
Casting doubts on postal voting: Voint by post is at an all-time high in this election. In a rally, Feijóo suggested that some votes cast by citizens via the mail might not get counted.
"I ask the postal workers to work morning, afternoon, and night, and even if they don't have enough reinforcements, they should know they are safeguarding something sacred. I ask them, regardless of their bosses, to deliver all the votes"
— Alberto Nuñez Feijóo at a rallyThe PP leader later said he was not suggesting that voting by mail could be rigged and that he was just concerned about a delivery jam.
False claims on pension increases: During the face-to-face debate, Feijóo falsely asserted that his party had consistently increased pensions in line with the consumer price index. In an interview with the public broadcaster, a journalist confronted him with the truth, revealing that the PP had missed the mark on pension adjustments in three specific years.
An elusive press release: Feijóo struggled to back up his claim that an inquiry into the use of Pegasus software in Spain was shelved due to the lack of cooperation from Sánchez's government. The PP candidate said that the read it in a press release, but no one has found it, despite that many journalists have been searching for it. It was probably a manipulation of this news story, which was published shortly debate: Spain closes Pegasus investigation over 'lack of cooperation' from Israel.
Dangerous liaisons with a drug trafficker: One of Feijóo's major liabilities was an old photo showing him on a boat with a known drug trafficker, Marcial Dorado. The left brought this issue up only in the campaign's second week, accusing Feijóo of being too close to Dorado. Feijóo has maintained that he barely knew Dorado and was unaware of his illicit activities because "there was no Internet and Google" 30 years ago. Many people familiar with Galicia's difficult struggle with drugs in the 1980s and 1990s regard this as a lie. Dorado's connection to drug traffic was widely known in the region. Just today Feijóo acknowledged that he knew Dorado was "a smuggler", but "not a drug trafficker".
Sánchez and his socialists have also lied during the campaign, but to a lesser extent. One particular controversy is Sanchez's refusal to acknowledge that his government has agreed to introduce tolls on certain roads and highways next year as part of the conditions for receiving the EU's Recovery and Resilience Funds. Sánchez continues to deny this as fake news, but one only needs to access a document on a site set up by the government to fact-check this.
Odds and ends
I work for Democracy Reporting International, a non-profit organisation committed to defending and improving democracy worldwide. Two of our main areas of work are the rule of law and monitoring online public discourse at the time of elections. Here's what we recently published about the Spanish elections:
Spain and the Rule of Law: My colleague Nino Tsereteli analyses the state of the rule of law in EU member states at the time of elections. I couldn't help but laugh when she asked me if the rule of law was being discussed in the campaign. Maybe in around 15 years, when we are done discussing ETA? Jokes aside, Spain has a number of rule of law problems that need addressing. Most pressing is the renewal of the Council of the Judiciary, pending since 2018 and which the PP and PSOE have failed to negotiate time and again. The PP has often blocked it to keep its conservative majority in the judiciary; and the PSOE has attempted to meddle with the rules that govern the renewal. We also have problems with the independence of the prosecutor's office, and the government has abused fast-track decree laws, allowing them to pass legislation with reduced parliament oversight. Check Nino's analysis here. We also wrote about the crisis involving the Constitutional Court last December.
Disinformation regarding mail-in vote: At Democracy Reporting International, we have also partnered with Maldita.es to conduct social media monitoring ahead of the vote. Soon after the election, we will release a report with our analysis of the online public discourse during the campaign. Today we launched a teaser regarding the online conversation about postal voting. 60% of posts with disinformation are related to the issue of mail-in voting.
In one specific instance, users shared a series of videos of themselves opening the envelope with the ballots. All are in except for those of Vox, something they claim is fraud. However, those videos are from Santa Cruz de Tenerife, where Vox did not present any candidacy.
Delve Deeper
Spain’s election is a key battle in the Europe-wide struggle against neofascism, by former UK prime minister, Gordon Brown on The Guardian.
Spain Is Going to Be Fine, by Omar G. Encarnación on the New York Times.
Spanish election: The forgotten regions could decide who wins, by Aitor Hernández-Morales on Politico Europe.
Franco’s ghost fails to scare Spain away from the hard right, by Michael Reid on Finacial Times.
The ex-Eta terrorist bringing down Pedro Sánchez in Spain, by Barney Jopson on Financial Times.