The days have no names, just an “extended giveaway” until May 28. When seven days pass without stopping for a second, the eighth day is called “octavio”. These are the codes of the campaign team of the Unides Podem-Esquerra Unida candidate Héctor Illueca. At the headquarters of the purple formation is the base of operations, which becomes even more enthusiastic during the election period.
They say the big desk they work around (filled with computers, notebooks, and coffee in vending cups) is their “therapy” space. There they discuss, organize, broadcast and finalize debates, but they also comment on the ballot box news.
Three teams work with the candidate. Organizational, communication and political. The latter is personified in the figure of César Lledó, the chief of staff of Illueca and a trusted person of the leader. The challenge is to seduce voters through a leader.
Carles Fons, third on the Cortes list for Valencia and also the person responsible for organizing the campaign, says their candidates get a lot out of it because of their talent. “I’ll tell you what,” he adds.
Joan Pérez leads the communications team and broadcasts all the candidate’s messages. The three of them are accompanied by about twelve people who throw themselves into the daily chores of running all the machines, and they also feed on comrades and comrades from Alicante and Castellón. Everything is online. Searching for space, asking permission, taking photos, videos, broadcasts, transporting audio equipment, coordinating with local candidates and mobilizing militancy are some of the duties undertaken by militants as well as professionals. “With the few resources we have, militant networking is crucial,” says Carles Fons. They spent five months preparing for the polls, which would end in just four days. A route where they outline the steps to be followed in order to stay at a third Botànic. César Lledó has accompanied Illueca from the very beginning and the rest of the team either goes with them or works from the centre. The day starts at seven in the morning. They study the press and introduce current events that may arise in discourse (while this report is being prepared, the discussion of comments on the El Hormiguero program fills all aspects of the day).
at home at 23:00
Then they set the route for the day’s destination. The action they had just prepared in the car raised possible questions to the media. It’s all the fruit of networking, they point out. At about eleven o’clock at night, they come home and eat dinner, sleep (good but enough) and repeat.
Although the style changes according to the time of the day, they do not talk about anything other than the campaign. They joke that they don’t even know what day they are living on (28M, except for counting the days to the finish line) and that another report will be “the campaign through the eyes of our families”. They eat twice a day—the best they ever tasted in this campaign was paella on stilts after a show at Alzira—and at odd times as constant work forces them to live outside of the clock. They go to bed late and get up early, and the only time the connection drops is on Sunday afternoons. Some. This is a multi-core campaign with the slogan Courage to Transform, which they say symbolizes “an attitude towards life and the system.”
A marker painted with a felt-tip pen on one of the walls surrounding the desk pinpoints anyone. “28 million, 8 days left.” The team works in different areas to achieve the best results. The key: row together like bees in a hive. F