As moderator of the Televisión Española debate, the journalist Xabier Fortes can be satisfied. He knew how to update a public service alternative in a format that, hijacked by the advisers, tends to show confrontation and justifies Jorge Drexler singing “hate is the guide for cowards.” Without epic infographics or gratuitous stridency, the turns to speak followed one another with a legitimate proselytizing will that, luckily, was not very angry. From time to time the ideological friction generated sparks of disagreement. In the end, the viewer had the feeling that the dramatic charge of the elections was reduced and parliamentary logic was recovered. A logic that discredits one of the big lies of the campaign: that the elections are presidential.
Aina Vidal opted for an ending –“Long live life and live joy!”– more typical of a musical than of a debate. Aitor Esteban deconstructed the famous Ortega y Gasset entailment referring to the Catalan potato (I sense that it is hot) and the Basque potato. He fuertes congratulated the seven candidates for sharing a moment of civilized television (with “sentidinho”) while the idea of ??the Basque potato (possible remake of Julio Medem’s La pelota vasca) triggered mutant recipes for porrusalda, marmitako or sukalki in the networks.
Pause: Yesterday I detoxed for two hours of the campaign by going to see a Tunisian movie. It is titled Between the Fig Trees and portrays a working day in the fields among a group of exploited men and women who do not renounce life or joy. Surprise: a unique version of L’estaca sounds in the credits. It was the ideal transition to return to reality and rediscover two classics: the presidents José Montilla and Mariano Rajoy. Montilla insisted that the right wants to change the progressive course of the Government. Rajoy provided raw material for one of those memes that, after being exploited so much to ridicule it, ends up dignifying those who are wrong.
A few days ago, in El País, the socialist leader for Valladolid, Óscar Puente, made a brother-in-law statement: “Whoever stays at home, after that does not complain.” I have bad news for Puente: a lot of people will stay home and continue to complain just as if they had voted. And it is possible that, in an unspeakable attack of losing badly (cuñadismo is transversal and retractable), we have to regret that some have gone to vote.
At Catalunya Ràdio, Albert Montilla, twenty-eight years old, makes his debut as the presenter of El suplement de verano. With the logical nervousness of the first times, he makes a vigorous proclamation in favor of a generational alliance and demands confidence for the young people. His editorial transmits the impatience of a long content speech endorsed by demographic inertia. It’s true: in a few years a few generations of boomer radio operators will retire. Meanwhile, the new generations have to realize that it is much easier to make announcements than to maintain a good rhythm on the air and, just as happened to their predecessors, learn to master diction, spontaneity, language, humor, tone and the unfathomable energy that connects with listeners.
