Sánchez feasts in ‘El hormiguero’ at the expense of Pablo Motos

The decisive moment of the campaign arrived. Private Sánchez went into the Vietnamese jungle afraid of seeing the faces of the feared Vietcong, the “media terminals” of which he has spoken in several interviews. He had already suffered intense crossfire from Carlos Alsina on Onda Cero and had gotten out of the ambush as best he could. Defensive and without sounding too forceful on the more sensitive questions. It was the night of the interview in ‘El hormiguero’ with Pablo Motos in the role of a ruthless enemy.

Noooo. It wasn’t that bad. What’s more, it was the opposite. If we understand these interviews in the pre-election period as a kind of duel, it can be said that Pedro Sánchez ate Pablo Motos on Tuesday night. He digested it quickly and when he got home he was already hungry.

Victory doesn’t have to mean much either. Interviews with politicians on radio and television require very specific experience, which is not even within the reach of all journalists, and very thorough prior preparation to extract from the newspaper library everything that could harm or simply surprise the guest.

Motos does not have that experience because his program is about something else, and that is what has made him an example of great television success. And he is calmer than during the pandemic, when he launched into some exaggerated allegations, he made fun of Fernando Simón’s haircut and did not stop until he fell ill with Covid and told people to protect themselves. Not to mention when he asked Isabel Díaz Ayuso “did you feel very alone?” in a phrase that he recalled to the most romantic moments of a Televisa soap opera.

Sánchez was able to embed all the messages he had prepared in the minds of the viewers, which we have already heard in other interviews. We do not know what he eats and drinks in the electoral campaigns. We can only trust that they are legal products. Like in ‘When Harry Met Sally’someone in the audience should have said afterwards: I want what that gentleman has asked for.

He talked, talked and talked, while Motos sweated thinking that half of the questionnaire was going to be left out. Once he gave her a good reply, Sánchez went on with his business. He had asked him if he would vote in an investiture in favor of Alberto Núñez Feijóo so that he does not have to agree with Vox. “I’m going to win the elections,” he responded predictably. “Tezanos will not have told him,” Motos jumped to the point, referring to the president of the CIS who starred in another resounding failure with the 28M polls. But he did not care because Sánchez continued with his speech and did not even stop to take the blow.

Logically, Motos reminded him of his criticism of some radio and television programs for being biased in favor of the right. When he said that this included entertainment programs, Motos had to be taken for granted. Sánchez limited himself to saying that he was not going to “signal” to any program, an evasive answer but one that works for him. He has already thrown the stone and does not need to check if someone has taken it across the forehead.

Something curious happened. The one who became defensive was Motos, who went so far as to affirm that in his political gatherings “there is a decompensation to the left”, a comment that should have caused laughter in the public. To affirm that they have also criticized the Government from progressive positions, Pablo Motos commented that people like Felipe González, Alfonso Guerra (!!) and Juan Luis Cebrián (!!!), people who had no appreciation for Sánchez from before. that he arrived at Moncloa.

From his home, the former director of El País Antonio Caño, who failed in his attempt to kill Sánchez, saw how a notable duodenal ulcer was growing. He wrote nine tweets with which you did not have to be a doctor to appreciate the progressive deterioration of his stomach. “My God, but who runs this program? When do the questions start? Let’s hope he hadn’t eaten too big.

In the first minutes, the presenter did hit hard with the electoral call in the middle of July “when twelve million Spaniards will be out of their homes.” And then the scolding: “Do you think that can change the electoral result?” Sanchez denied it without fuss. The truth is that the one who has a problem of mobilizing the electorate is the left, not the right, and voting by mail works for these things.

Motos took out a fragment of his program in which one of his collaborators, Juan del Val, lost his mind and said that calling elections in July “was a fraud.” Removing the video of that moment benefited Sánchez, who responded that this is a “very serious” accusation that should be proven. There he got great and said that opinions are free, but you have to respect the facts, and before that Motos could say little. Impossible to fit another hoax into the program.

The presenter had the good taste not to throw himself into the mud and not mention ETA or any alternative reality in which the terrorist organization continues to exist in Spain. In their homes, the leaders of the PP were surely biting the remote control. Motos admitted that the pardons for those convicted in the procés trial had had a positive effect in Catalonia (those from the PP began to bite the arm of the sofa), but that the suppression of the crime of sedition had been a serious mistake.

The good result of the television appointment for their interests confirms the political mistake that Moncloa made by not having granted interviews with the president to some of the media critical of his management during the legislature. He was sure they were going to ask him tough questions, but that is precisely what the opposition has done in Parliament since 2019. Every week.

Sánchez is scheduled to attend the Ana Rosa Quintana program next week. There he will have to appear with a helmet and bulletproof vest, because the presenter of Telecinco is very attacked. “But what the hell right-wing media,” she said Tuesday, making her audience’s hair stand on end. Sánchez has several days to practice the seductive gesture and the energies of a campaign, because she is going to need them in that trench.