The day after, a Pedro Sánchez was seen in Vilnius (Lithuania) enraged by “the mountain of lies” spouted by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, while the president of the PP was perceived as being excessive and puffing up his chest in Ciudad Real for the result of the face-to-face face in Atresmedia. Sánchez had a NATO summit and Feijóo, a campaign rally.
Both said they were satisfied with their roles in the debate, but the feeling is that the president had a hard time sleeping and the candidate slept through the night in one go. Perhaps it was because the responsibilities of the following day were very different for one and the other. Or perhaps it was because “the mountain of lies” seemed to Sánchez to be the Tourmalet and his legs did not respond as he expected, while Feijóo escaped uphill.
José María Aznar commented, shortly after arriving at the Government, that he had realized that power changed the vision that people had of whoever holds it. He compared it to the yellow jersey of the Tour leader, which commands respect from the rest of the peloton, to the point of allowing him to achieve victories that he would not have imagined.
Pedro Sánchez learned this early on, who in a few months went from being ostracized by his party to being admired for his tenacity and resilience, which led him in a short time to take charge of the PSOE again and a year later reach the presidency of the Government. But both Aznar and Sánchez learned that the worst enemy of those in charge is to be seen as arrogant.
The president’s advisers took pains to prevent him from appearing arrogant, an adjective with which the popular often try to denigrate him. So the feeling is that he lacked aggressiveness and he had plenty of smiles. Quite the opposite of Feijóo, who came out uninhibited, ready to take the rival ahead in the first minute, with great elegance and no scruples. The gibberish that the confrontation turned into baffled the socialist.
The president of the PP knew how to stop the comeback that he could fear, but he also gave a solid image. In any case, there is still a long stretch to the finish line. Eddy Merckx said something that Sánchez knows well: “The race is won by the cyclist who knows how to suffer the most.”
