It’s summer, it’s time for sun and beach, it’s time for a change of government: this is the message Partido Popular (PP/EPP) launched on Thursday as part of its efforts to oust Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, whom they blame for calling the snap general election at the “worst possible time” on 23 July, when millions of citizens are on vacation.
In a presentation far from the usual strict codes of conduct with no suit, no tie, and no formalities, the PP spokesperson Borja Sémper organised a very peculiar press conference. He appeared before the cameras barefoot, in shirt and summer clothes, as if he had just left his hotel in a tourist beach area.
In a relaxed tone, Sémper presented the “blue summer” initiative, a name that, for millions of Spaniards, especially those over 40, evokes memories of a happy childhood far from the noise and smog of big cities.
However, he stressed that this was not the PP official election campaign (which starts on 7 July like other parties), but rather an “appetiser”.
The blue of summer and happiness
The word “blue” in Spanish does not have the double meaning of “sadness” that it has in English in certain contexts, but apart from the possible poetic marine metaphors, it is reminiscent of a Spanish public television (RTVE) series broadcast in the late 1970s and mid-1980s, with precisely the same name, “Verano Azul” (Blue Summer).
The series, a great success in those post-democratic transition years in Spain, was shot in the Spanish coastal towns of Nerja and Vélez-Málaga (province of Málaga) and Motril and Almuñécar (on the coast of Granada).
As Sémper explained at the press conference, organised in a sports centre in the exclusive Puerta de Hierro district of Madrid, the goal is that, after the general elections on 23 July, with the PP (and perhaps the far-right VOX party) in government, Spaniards can return home in September with one less problem (Sánchez, in his opinion).
It is a clever electoral marketing strategy to try to convince, above all, that percentage of undecided voters (many of them socialists), which pollsters estimate at 10-15%, that the best option is to say “adios, Pedro Sánchez” is to vote for the PP.
A Baywatch-like scenario
The “mise en scène” was perfect for a movie: the PP organised the event on the sports centre’s volleyball court, decorated with blue beach umbrellas, the official colour of the PP, and used a song by “Chanquete”, one of the main characters of the TV series, to ask people to vote for the centre-right party.
“We are going to ask Spain, whistling and with joy, to turn this summer into a blue summer”, said Sémper, and asked Spaniards to vote with enthusiasm to recover hope in good politics in the face of “the radicalism of some and the extemporaneity of others”.
“Pedro Sánchez has wanted these elections to catch us off-guard (…) on holiday”, he said, adding that “it is compatible to enjoy the summer and also to vote”.
“Nobody should give up on having a blue summer”, he stressed.
(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.EURACTIV.es)
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