Six face to face, but with the public

Electoral debates between candidates and with closed questions from journalists are already old-fashioned things, from before the internet. Politicians have to debate face to face with the public, simply with a moderator, as has been done for a long time in many other countries..

Electoral debates are an element of accountability, a fundamental concept in any democracy, but which is the great challenge of Spanish democracy, to the point that we do not even have a specific word to define it.. The debates serve so that politicians can be asked about their programs and so that we can all see in real time and without filters if they have proposals to solve the country's problems. They also help us judge their personality and thus determine if their commitment to the proposals they have made is serious..

From the outset in Spain we have a problem with respect to the debates, because as the political programs do not normally contain specific proposals (with costs), the debates do not deal with solutions, but with generalities.. We are still very far, for example, from having a candidate with the clarity of vision, technical knowledge, ease and mental agility that Macron demonstrated in his last electoral debate with Le Pen.. Part of the explanation is that Macron's ambitious program has nothing to do with the general pamphlets of most of our parties..

These empty electoral programs, of content with costs, suppose a particularly serious problem in these elections, because the most likely scenario is that of a coalition with the (luckily still a minority) extreme left or extreme right. The best way to manage this unfortunate situation is to make coalitions with very detailed transparent government agreements, so that extremist parties have almost no room for maneuver to erode neither the fundamental values nor the rationality of the country's policies.. But to be able to make these detailed agreements, you have to start with detailed electoral programs with cost analysis, which is something that is conspicuous by its absence in Spain..

In the absence of proposals and solutions, the only thing left for debate is political noise, to see who gets irritated first, if one steps on the other, if someone gets nervous, if they manage to slip in a phrase that attracts attention, or if one's response upsets the adversary, as happened to Rajoy when Pedro Sánchez called him indecent to his face. All this gives a point of entertainment for the audience. But it's just another reality show, which has little or nothing to do with democratic accountability..

As the Spanish electoral lists are closed and decided by the leaders of the parties, on a day-to-day basis there is no incentive for politicians to interact directly and openly with citizens, as they do in other countries.. Just to give an example, when my husband was Vice President of the British Government, he would go to a radio station every Thursday to undergo live open questions from the public for an hour. That was 10 years ago. And it was not his idea, but Mike Bloomberg recommended it to him, who started doing it as mayor of New York even before. It is worth that our politicians still do not do it every week, but what less than to do it during the elections!.

The debates in these elections should be face to face with the public with open questions. And also the candidates should hold a specific debate with young people. It is the only way to get them to stop shirking when it comes to finding solutions to the real problems of the country.. What would the leaders answer to a young person who wants to know what specific measures they propose so that Spain stops being the European country with the highest youth unemployment? Or to stop being the European country with the highest school dropout rate? Or so that the performance of Spanish students in science and mathematics is no longer below the European average? Or to change the fact that 36% of young people work in jobs that are below their qualification level? Or so that the annual net salary of young Spaniards stops being 13.2% less than the European average? Do the candidates have convincing answers to solve these problems? And if they don't have them, are they going to dare to look those young people and citizens in the face?

The format of the debates matters much more than the number of debates. Organizing debates with direct questions from the public and a specific debate with young people should be the priority of all media.