It doesn’t matter if the table is long; There is hardly any space between the laptops and cell phones of the eleven people surrounding him, with papers, calendars, flasks, half a pack of hazelnuts, the box of freshly eaten tuna empanadas and almost the middle of the cupboard. , a Barack Obama doll moving its head. “He inspires us,” says PSPV Organizing Secretary José Muñoz jokingly. The Board may well look like a market stall, but it is one of the rooms in the Socialist headquarters where they plan their electoral strategy.
Despite the hours there is a nice atmosphere. Those of your appointment and those that have accumulated. It’s 14:30 and it’s a week and a half until the ballot box appointment. “Disconnect? What is it?” Asked whether they can do more than just watch the election turnout, they answer almost simultaneously. “It’s 24 hours a day,” says Spain’s Arcadi Finance Minister, one of the leading figures in the socialist engine room. to have a history,” he concludes.
They are part of the team of mechanics that prepare the car and design the track so that the driver, in this case the candidate, the campaign image, the electoral presence and even the slogan Ximo Puig, achieves a third government goal. Generalitat Palace. “It cost us almost nothing,” admits campaign manager and regional Education Minister Miguel Soler, regarding the election of “el-president”, which followed as the campaign motto and had a dot at the end. He says such shores are based on data, qualitative analyzes that the Socialists started oiling the machine about six months ago, week after week.
“There are also smells,” says Muñoz, to explain that there are things that depend on intuition, not just numbers. The same feelings made us prefer extended families with two children. It was one of those star ads that could mark a campaign and think it was successful. “It’s a representative measure of our generation, and we’ve already been replicated in other federations,” says Domínguez. “It came to me through three different groups of friends that I don’t normally talk about politics,” Muñoz says, as a sign of success.
The schedule is tight, but we are trying to catch up everywhere. This responsibility lies with the so-called “Candidate Office”. Why? “I’m the office,” replies Rocío Briones, who is also the Managing Director of Employment at Consell. His job is to balance the agenda for other interlocutors, especially Puig. “The route is marked for a month to pass through all areas,” he explains, but that doesn’t stop calls from continuing to come. “They want the president to go, everybody wants him in town,” he adds, trying to balance an almost incomprehensible excel, as if it were a rock star tour.
The fate of who goes where, when and above all to what falls on him and Soler. They decide who will play the leading role in a screen; this is the envy of the campaign, where in many cases things are regional, involving various towns and their candidates. And here his teammates talk about the rally of the lucky ones to those responsible. “At all the rallies there is always someone who emphasizes how well Generalitat is doing in terms of employment and education,” Muñoz jokes. And they laugh and the majority deny it, of course.
Countdown activated. One week is left, and for Pere Rostoll, chief executive of Corporate Affairs and a strong man in campaign communications, and press officer Alicia Manso, a significant portion of the floating voting has been decided. For this it is important to mark the message: what, when and where to say it. Morning WhatsApps fly between the two of them in one of the multiple groups they share (they say “tight tight”, without specifying a number). “Every channel, even every social network, has its own audience,” they explain.
Most of these communications between the two are sent by Rostoll at dawn. The stress of appointments causes him to get up earlier. He gets up at five or six and puts in the washing machines. “When I can,” he admits. Soler, on the other hand, is more comfortable in circadian rhythms. Muñoz takes this with another philosophy: “We shouldn’t be obsessed, we all know we can’t be disconnected.” “In the end it hooks you and if it’s a less busy day, you feel awkward as if you’re not doing your job,” adds Spain. “It’s true that it’s exciting, too,” says Briones. And everyone, even the moving head of the Obama figure on the table, nods.
Miguel Soler chairs the table. To his right are Briones, Muñoz and Manso and to his left are Spain, Domínguez, Rostoll and Vila.