Information, over-information, but, above all, disinformation are inexhaustible sources of sudden and uncritical reflections. Moreover, in a period of physical confinement, where disruption is not only social and economic, but also sentimental, opinions flow with the speed of single-mindedness and the lack of rigour of contrasted analysis. For this reason, and in the face of the variable mist of events and at a time when public activity is not at its best as a result of the process of professionalisation of politics, halfway between narcissism and adanism, it is advisable to establish some necessary concepts about political communication in times of national calamity.
The first reflection regarding the response paradigm and reaction times is that Public administrations were not prepared for a disaster of this magnitude. and of this magnitude. Political communication had become routinised under the parameters of social and economic normality, with the incorporation of a certain goofy aestheticism closely tied to the physical image. Aesthetics have displaced political ethics and, as a consequence, the disseminators and propagators of political parties have focused on the inanity of plasticism as opposed to the focus of ideas. There is no doubt that the new political leaders have to be holders of certain standards of beauty and physical poise, beyond their professional training and experience.
In fact, we old-school politicians suffer from the syndrome of the empty political niche and tend to disdain the new users of this battered art of politics as vacuous. On the other hand, there are still scrupulous communication professionals who make their living only by giving their opinions on the movement of politicians' hands or the assertiveness of their expressions, without having the slightest knowledge of political concepts and ideas. Mediocrity does not only graze in the field of politics unfortunately.
Secondly, the government has started from a correct principle of providing information through ministers and technicians, an aspect that should not be criticised in principle. Moreover, in states of isolation and closure, there can be no information blackout.The first is that uncertainty, anxiety and sanity will be lost. However, the implementation of this strategy suffers, in my opinion, from three very serious errors: firstly, the material feeling of improvisation, lack of coordination, lack of knowledge and insecurity conveyed by certain ministers; the overlaying of a protective shield in the form of officials and technicians to dilute political responsibility; and, finally, the programmed control of media questions which constitutes a democratic anomaly, all the more so when transparency is presumed.
The third analysis focuses on the phases of the crisis, distinguishing three major milestones in a good communication strategy, which have gone unnoticed by the government: the entry phase and the beginning of the health crisis, the current phase of the crisis' pugnacious development and, lastly, the phase of the crisis' exit. With regard to the entry phase, the political communication was an accumulation of errors ranging from denial of the seriousness of the crisis to minimisation of the risks associated with it. In this phase, logically, the government knows that it has lost, not only in terms of crisis management but also in terms of political crisis communication. Since he has lost it, he has reacted mendaciously by the treacherous procedure of setting the blame accelerator in motion with his political rival.
When defence in politics becomes an attack on the enemy, there is no defence at all. What is more, the official discourse is based on two categorically false assertions, which are blurring self-responsibility: on the one hand, that the health crisis has been symmetrical throughout the world and, on the other, that there was no option whatsoever to anticipate the problem, criticising the opposition in what has been called, with little intellectual success, "hindsight bias". Well, at this sad hour the pandemic is not symmetrical (Spain is the country with the most deaths per million inhabitants in the world), nor can it be said that there was no mistake, as the Minister of the Interior has blatantly asserted. Politics is the art of anticipation, for better or worse, and unfortunately, what is expected of politicians is "anticipatory bias". For the rest, the only possible asymmetry is that of the reasoning of the President of the Government himself, who, while untruthfully stating that the pandemic is symmetrical internationally, without intellectual modesty, claims, on the other hand, that it is asymmetrical between Autonomous Communities. These easily intellectually attackable fallacies serve to create a morbid network of political confrontation at the service of gregarious and tribal merchants of argumentation.
In the present situation, the communication strategy is based on the insistence of technical messages and in some media outlets' following or following of the official doctrine. They act as a distraction from responsibility and create an imaginary spectre of collective pain that is also intended to function as a factor that discredits responsibility. Publicity turned into propaganda, discourse turned into an alibi. In this exercise, they try to identify government and society, taking over the strength and resistance of civil society, the same society that they denigrate with some of their recent economic policy decisions. They want to pass themselves off as society, when they are government, and therefore holders of duties and prerogatives that must be properly exercised.
Knowing that the crisis has overtaken the government, it is easy to see, unless they have not learned from their mistakes, that the communication strategy in the wake of the crisis will continue to consist of dispersing responsibility to both the present and the past, and of shaping an emotional conglomerate of which they intend to form part as one more piece of a society that has been and is in a position of resistance and ethics far above that of their executive. To this end, they will call into action the entire media trumpet corps and even some pseudo-cultural brood, which, by the way, has not been seen in general during the crisis. They know that they are playing for power and will therefore spare no effort to advance along this path. Spain will come out of this crisis badly wounded. Too much. Let us do our best to heal the wounds and not to burst them.
Mario Garcés
Deputy Spokesperson of the Popular Parliamentary Group in the Congress of Deputies. Economic Coordinator of the Popular Parliamentary Group. PP Member of Parliament for Huesca. Former Undersecretary of the Ministry of Public Works and former Secretary of State for Social Services and Equality.
State Comptroller and Auditor. State Treasury Inspector. Academician. Writer.