1. Villalgordo del Jucar (Albacete)
Castilla-La Mancha is the only municipality that has confirmed the PSOE government led by Emiliano García-Page with an absolute majority. But in Villalgordo del Júcar the vote is beginning to move, and not always in the direction indicated by the polls. We started the journey in this small town of 1,000 inhabitants in the north of the province of Albacete.
On the walls of the Pepe bar in Villalgordo del Júcar in the province of Albacete are posters and flags from Atlético de Madrid, press clippings about the last snowfall and a sentence on a tile: “Opening hours: We open when.” We come and close, when we go.” Tortilla skewers, helpings of Torreznos and snails look at me across the bar. The TVE news program is playing in the background as the man next to me asks the waiter for a beer.
– No, better change it to a summer tinto.
— With homemade or with lemon?
“It doesn’t matter,” he replies.
I keep running my finger over my cell phone as the man at the bar sits down at a table, takes the menu of the day and orders the first course.
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— I want gazpacho.
– The Gazpacho are marching!
“Well, no,” he says, “better the stew.”
As if it were a spy movie, I look up from my phone, turn my head and see Antonio, 78 years old, toothpick in mouth, pensioner and expatriate, eating. I just found my husband.
According to the RAE, an undecided is “one who lacks firmness or security.” According to political science, these are those people who “at the time of the poll have not decided on the direction of their vote, or who refuse to talk about it, with the intention of voting”.
According to the latest CIS poll, almost 8.5 million Spaniards (22.8%) decide their election campaign. About 2.5 million (6.4%) did so the previous day and more than two million people voted at the ballot box. According to the GUS, it is left-wing voters who have the most doubts. Almost four in ten are unsure whether to vote for PSOE or Sumar, two in ten are unsure whether to vote for PP or Vox, and one in ten is unsure between PSOE and PP.
Without moving from the bar, I found one of these undecided. “They all make me tired, they always attack each other,” he says, pointing to the TV. “They make me nervous and politics neither give me anything nor take anything from me. In the end they are all the same.
— But Menestra and Gazpacho taste different.
“It’s just that I ate gazpacho yesterday and I don’t want to repeat that,” he replies.
With these words and studies on yeast, cooking times and fermentation, Antonio has just drafted an election campaign.
For psychologists, “indecisiveness is the difficulty in choosing between two or more alternatives that are relevant to a person’s functionality.” “Behind indecisiveness lies a loss of basic trust that leads us to constantly question the correctness of our decisions place. Associated with this is a feeling of insecurity, excessive self-demanding and a lack of clarity in dealing with situations,” says Dr. Manuel Escudero, who runs a center in Madrid that treats indecisiveness when it reaches pathological levels.
The worst thing about an undecided person is that their life goes on beyond the ballot. After a fruitful conversation about the reasons for doubting, it’s time for the photo. First, Antonio agrees to pose for Jaime Villanueva’s camera. Then he is silent, hesitates, turns around, says he doesn’t want any photos and disappears through the streets of a deserted city in 35 degrees.
Exterior view of the Pepe coffee bar in Villalgordo del Júcar. Jaime Villanueva
Interior of the bar. Jaime Villanueva
According to CIS, three out of ten Spaniards doubt who to vote for. In a bar with twelve people I find Sandra Marín, 42, the second undecided behind the bar. “Vote, of course I will vote, because that way I can complain, but nobody convinces me,” he says.
— What is the most important thing in a candidate?
“The charisma,” he replies. — “I like Pedro Sánchez and he has done good things, but he lies a lot. Feijóo is the most boring man in the world and Abascal has ideas that I agree with and in others he is very radical. I’m torn between PSOE and Vox,” he says, driving pollsters crazy. “Here in Castile-La Mancha, the PSOE is doing well and I’ve voted Socialist all my life, but Vox says things I like. They realized that we are very burned.”
— Did you hesitate that long when you changed the color of the wall in your house?
“A lot,” he replies between laughs.
Over the next few days, we’ll be on the lookout for the 22.8% of voters who are undecided and could make the difference in the election. In less than two weeks, they are the country’s leading political force with eight million supporters, a million more than Pedro Sánchez in 2019, who received fewer than seven million votes. We will look for some of these in a beach bar in Cadiz, a bingo hall in Torrevieja, the Sierra de Granada, a square in Ourense, a monastery in La Rioja, a city in Huesca, an independence center in Catalonia or a market in Madrid. Beyond the candidates, what concerns those who decide on their vote at the ballot box? Are the programs important? What causes them to choose one or the other? Is it perhaps the hairstyle of the candidates, the design of the ballot paper? or a friend’s comment? In times of certainty and doubt, is it a symptom of intelligence or pathology? In the final part of the 10 posts, we’ll talk to each protagonist again to see how their attunement has evolved. Or not.
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