The Spanish podcaster Jordi Wild released interviews with three candidates for the post of head of government at the start of the election campaign. The recorded conversations with Ada Colau, Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Pedro Sánchez appeared on 13 November on his podcast’s YouTube channel The Wild Project. Spain will elect a new parliament on 29 November.
Ada Colau, the former mayor of Barcelona, stood as a candidate for the left-wing coalition Frente Amplio Alberto Núñez Feijóo leads the conservative People’s Party, while Pedro Sánchez is the incumbent prime minister and candidate for the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party. Wild spoke to the three politicians individually; the interview series was not a joint debate.
The releases were spread across the morning. The interview with Colau appeared at 8 am, the one with Feijóo was scheduled for 10 am and the one with Sánchez for 12 noon. According to the newspaper 20 Minutos, each conversation lasted between 60 and 90 minutes. Two journalists reportedly checked claims off camera.
Also Santiago Abascal, chairman of the right-wing party Vox, was originally due to take part. However, he cancelled the interview. According to reports by 20 Minutos and La Vanguardia, Abascal said the decision reflected a strategic change by his party following the controversy over his appearance on the TV programme La Revuelta. Wild criticised the cancellation.
According to public broadcaster RTVE, Wild had invited leading representatives of the four political forces. The conditions reportedly included that the questions would not be agreed in advance and that the recordings would be published unedited. La Vanguardia also reported these assurances from the presenter.
RTVE describes The Wild Project as a video podcast in which Wild often speaks with guests from different fields for several hours. Political consultant Juanma Barrios, interviewed by the broadcaster, sees appearances like these as a way for politicians to reach people beyond the regular political audience. It cannot be inferred from this whether the interviews influence voting decisions.
Alongside such one-to-one interviews, televised debates are also planned: RTVE proposed, among other things, a head-to-head between Sánchez and Feijóo on 17 November. According to the schedule published by the Central Electoral Commission, the debates were still under negotiation; dates could change.
Editor: Phillipe Schmidt-Araguin (Article created with AI assistance).