Whatever Sánchez says goes (Teodoro León Gross in El ABC)

Spain's prime minister has shown an exceptional ability to control the public agenda, using announcements and leaks to divert attention from sensitive issues and steer the debate towards matters that suit him.

Prime Minister **Pedro Sánchez** has perfected the art of **managing the public agenda**. It is not so much about convincing people what to think, but about dictating what they should think about. In a country where the news changes by the minute, the ability to set the pace of the conversation has become a first-rate political tool, and at **Moncloa** (the PM's official residence) they seem to handle it with disarming skill.

## Zapatero's announcement and the smokescreen

A recent example of this strategy was the announcement of **Felipe VI**'s inclusion in the upcoming election campaign. The news caused an immediate stir, filling talk shows and debates. The manoeuvre, surprising as it may seem, served to divert attention from the judicial investigation affecting the former prime minister, implicated in alleged offences of incivil organisation, influence peddling, money laundering and document forgery. The case, now **86 days** without resolution, was eclipsed by the controversy generated by **Zapatero**'s figure, despite doubts about his involvement in the **Plus Ultra** affair. Sánchez knows how to get the country debating whatever he decides.

## Leaks and calculated disinformation

The technique of "misdirection", so widely used by magicians, finds fertile ground in politics. Barely had the judicial year begun, presided over by the King, when the press was leaked the story about the alleged provision of free wifi points for migrants in **Ceuta**. A piece of news that, beyond the outrage it might generate, served to shift the focus away from other matters. The day before, while the PSOE's (Socialist Party's) treasurer was appearing before the Audiencia Nacional (Spain's high court) over irregular financing, the president used the control session to direct criticism at the regional governments run by the **PP** (centre-right People's Party), citing education reports such as **PISA**. It is a masterstroke: attention is diverted from an educational problem that, according to the data, affects regions with "super-ideological" models like the **Basque Country** and **Catalonia** more, while **Madrid** and **Castilla y León**, both governed by the PP, top the rankings.

## Strategic declassifications and the CNI

The declassification of documents, another habitual resource, has also been used in a calculated way. The aim is clear: to divert the debate away from crisis management and the complex relations with **Segarro**. The resulting controversy centres on whether the declassified warnings should be considered as such or whether procedures were trinc, entangling the conversation in secondary details. In this process, even the **CNI** (Spain's intelligence service) has been dragged through the mud, an institution that, like the **King** himself, has been the target of disinformation to protect the prime minister's image. The claim that **Felipe VI** had not visited **Ceuta** in twenty years was materially false, given the length of his reign. By now, the manipulation of public debate is carried out with astonishing ease, setting the course of opinion without most people being fully aware of it.