Pedro Sánchez y Alberto Núñez Feijóo se enfrentarán en un cara a cara el próximo jueves 19 de noviembre, a diez días de las elecciones generales del 29N. La Academia de Televisión y de las Ciencias y las Artes del Audiovisual lo ha confirmado este viernes tras una reunión con los representantes del PSOE y del PP y el Comité de Dirección Ejecutiva de los Debates.
The meeting will take place at Stage A of Madrid Content City, the facilities of Secuoya Content Group in Tres Cantos (Madrid), and will be moderated by María Casado, president of the Academy of Television. The journalist has led the institution since 2018 and hosted for four seasons ‘Los desayunos de TVE’ (TVE Breakfasts), where she interviewed the leading political figures.
The five topics of the face-off
The teams from both parties have reached a consensus on the five thematic blocks of the debate, to be developed in this order:
- Housing
- Economy and taxation
- Social policy and public services
- Fighting corruption and democratic renewal
- Migration and foreign policy
Opening the face-off with housing is not accidental: the debate will arrive just a week after the Congress’s Standing Committee validated the decree that extends rental contracts and caps increases, one of the issues that has most shaped the legislative term.
Additionally, a draw has determined that Feijóo will open the debate and Sánchez will close it.
Where to watch the debate
As it did in the electoral debates of 2008, 2011, 2015, 2016 and 2019, the Academy of Television will provide an institutional feed of the encounter that any interested broadcasters may air. The face-off, therefore, will not be exclusive to a single channel, unlike the 2023 edition, which could only be viewed on Antena 3 and laSexta.
What has not yet been confirmed is the start time or the list of networks that will broadcast it. The Academy and the campaign teams will continue to refine the coverage details in the coming days.
How the agreement was reached
The announcement ends weeks of negotiations. RTVE, Atresmedia and Mediaset had presented different proposals to organize the campaign debates, but disagreements between PSOE and PP blocked the deal: the conservatives rejected holding the face-off on public television, and the socialists argued that RTVE should not be left out. The solution came through the Academy of Television: the PP accepted last Sunday the PSOE’s proposal that the institution would handle the two meetings agreed upon between the candidates.
The institution has defended its role as a “meeting point and neutral space for debate and clash of ideas between civil society and politics”, and has recalled that its doors and the knowledge of its academicians will always be available for “whatever initiatives help a better information and opinion for the citizens.”
The face-off had been initially scheduled for Monday, November 16, but had to be delayed due to organizational issues: the Academy was not able to have a debate of this scale ready in time. The second meeting, a four-person face-off in which Santiago Abascal (Vox) and Ada Colau (Frente Amplio) are also expected to participate, remains to be defined. Podemos has requested to join with Irene Montero, and the decision on its participation rests with the Central Electoral Board’s consultation.
From interviews to the face-off
While the date was being finalized, the candidates took the campaign to the major programs. Sánchez sat down with David Broncano on ‘La Rebellión’ (La Revuelta) and with Javier Ruiz on ‘La Séptima’, and Feijóo appeared on ‘Horizonte’ and visited this Wednesday ‘El Hormiguero’, where he drew 2,455,000 viewers and a 19% share. Abascal, for his part, led on Monday in ‘La Revuelta’ one of the campaign’s most-watched interviews: 4,815,000 viewers and a 33.6% share.
An interview, however, does not replace a debate. In the face-off, it is not enough to answer the host: the two candidates will have to directly confront their proposals and respond to the opponent’s arguments.
The 2023 precedent
It will be the second time that Sánchez and Feijóo face off in an electoral debate. The previous one, held on July 10, 2023, in Atresmedia with Ana Pastor and Vicente Vallés as moderators, drew an average of 5.9 million viewers and a 46.5% audience share across Antena 3 and laSexta.
That debate was marked by interruptions and cross-accusations: Sánchez highlighted the PP’s autonomous pacts with Vox, and Feijóo suggested that the least-voted party should abstain to facilitate the investiture of the winner. Pensions, the economy, and the “Only yes is yes” law dominated much of the exchanges.
This Thursday’s debate arrives in a different context, but with the same lure: ten days before the elections, it will be one of the final and major events of the 29N campaign.
