On Sarah Santaolalla’s (Salamanca, 26 years old) cell phone there are more than 2,000 unanswered WhatsApp messages. Most of them are insults or threats from anonymous people, haters who got his number thanks to a leak in a far-right chat. “I had to deactivate my voicemail because I had to constantly delete insults to receive new ones. I feel harassed every day, but I’m not going to change my number, nor my house, nor my life because some fascists are after me”, explains the political analyst, a sensation at public meetings (Mornings 360Inappropriate language, Straight to the point) and private (On everyone’s lips, everything is a lie). “I refuse to let these people manage my life. I’m used to it, I’ve been arguing with the gangsters in my neighborhood all my life.”
Santaolalla grew up in a very political household. “When I was little I wanted to be President of the Government”, she remembers. On Sundays, his father, a victim of Franco’s retaliation, played The International, And that’s when Fidel arrived by Carlos Puebla, or Red cock, black cock by Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio. I also read him poems by Machado – he recites from memory childhood memory– and led her to demonstrations for public health. “My father received many beatings from the grays. My great-grandfather was shot by the Francoists. From a very young age, they talked to me about all of this. “I grew up aware of persecution.”
He also grew up with a deep sense of loss. Her father died when she was 18 from lung cancer. At that age, Santaolalla began studying law – today he is a jurist – and participating in political debates on a university radio program. At the age of 21 he entered television, at Telecinco, where he had no problem criticizing Silvio Berlusconi, the head of the network and the entire Mediaset group, in front of the cameras. “When you go through a trauma as strong as the loss of a parent, you’re not afraid of losing a face, you’re not afraid of losing a follower, you’re not afraid of an insult or that some crazy person wants to kick you out of work.”
To ask. A few weeks ago, some media outlets published his salary at TVE. Did you expect this?
To respond. I’m sorry to say I expected this. All limits have been exceeded. First they attacked my family, accusing me of being “the daughter of”. As they discovered that I come from a normal and honest family, they continued with my training. They discovered that I read a book, that I am not María Pombo and that I have certain knowledge. They continued with my supposed properties and saw that I’m not María Pombo in this either because I live on rent. They even stalked my private life, as happens with all women. They said that a man put me in and it turns out that neither of them, that I have been working on a program longer than that supposed man. What’s left? The mass. I must be the only one who gets paid for working more than 16 hours a day.
Q. How do you manage so many personal attacks?
A. You learn over time. I ended up accepting violence and hatred. I wake up and go to bed knowing that my cell phone will be burning with thousands of insults. I have two paths: disappear or continue. No one has the right to take me away, to separate me, to expel me. Why? Why denounce corrupt people and corruptors? Why say people deserve public health care and education? For defending human rights? The board flipped. We stopped chasing the bad guys and started chasing the normal ones. I don’t think I belong to any kind of group, but I think I’m in a normal group. I’ve seen many colleagues take leave and disappear for the same thing they are doing to me. I’m not willing to do that. I’m just a 26 year old girl who wants to work in peace.
Q. Where does so much hate against you come from?
A. I find it boring and I’m happy. This system has some rules and I broke them. There are names that are banned on TV and I gave them. There are untouchable people in the media and I pointed them out. I don’t know if it’s bravery or unconsciousness, but I’ve done it and lost jobs because of it.
Q. There is a lot of talk about TVE’s supposed lack of objectivity and very little about whether or not there is objectivity on regional television.
A. I’m banned from regional public television. They talk about TVE because it bothers the public, it bothers success. When you don’t care, they don’t give you daily news. The only problem with TVE is that it reaches living rooms, it reaches people. Nobody talks about the regionals because maybe they aren’t reaching enough. Nobody talks about some private programs because maybe they are not reaching enough. Where there is more corruption, where there is a greater lack of plurality, where positions govern more, it is in these chains: in private and regional chains governed by the right. I never received money from any party or the Government. Some journalists who criticize me cannot say the same. And I tell you something else: I never lied. The day I tell a lie, I will leave television.
Q. What do you do after one of those big fights you have on TV?
A. Front or back? Because on TV you have fights on camera and in offices. I confess that they deal with internal fights worse than those seen on screen. It’s even dirtier when five bosses put a 22-year-old girl in an office and tell her how she should behave if she wants to last. Regarding the fights on set, I try to make them stay there, on set.
Q. Have you ever thought about leaving this job?
A. Yes, I had certain moments when I thought about that. But if you leave, that space is occupied by them, the others win.
Q. One of his most notable comments was when he called PP and Vox voters “idiots”. Do you regret saying that?
A. I never wanted to insult any voter. I have a lot of respect for the people of this country, for all of them: those on the right, those in the center and those on the left. I respect all ideologies, except fascism, which is a crime. When I said that, I meant not to treat us like idiots. I think PP voters are much smarter than their leaders. I really believe this. The right has been making insults for a long time: talking about graves and then denying it, talking about victims of the Franco regime and then denying it. See how it ended, with a PP deputy secretary of Equality calling me a “whore” and “Sánchez’s prostituted woman”. I would never dare call any woman from PP or Vox a “slut”.
Q. No politician would try to discredit a man by calling him a “whore,” right?
A. Never. They never talk about prostituted men. And I know more than one person who, when appearing on television some time ago, did things that I don’t know if I can tell you about. They even persecute me because of my physique. My body bothers them. What should I do to be able to sit in a chair? Dye my hair? Put on glasses? Lose weight? What should I do to join the right-wing canon? In fact, they are only bothered by women who don’t bend over. I’ve been told “shut up, you’re prettier” many times. It turns out that the best version of me is when I make noise. I don’t want to be the one who smiles at the boss or the one who stays at the party until the end to see if she can get a job. I want to be a political analyst.
Q. Now there is a lot of talk about polarization. Do you have right-wing friends?
A. I’ll tell you two things. Firstly, I don’t think Spain is polarized. I think there are some who attack and others who receive attacks, I think there are many aggressors and many victims. We cannot place the executioner on the same level as the victim. What happens in politics comes down to the streets. If Mrs. Ayuso calls the president a “son of a bitch”, why won’t Paco at the bar call the guy at the carpentry shop a “son of a bitch”? The far right grows when there is tension. They want a little tension in the streets to gain stories. I’m intolerant of intolerant people, but I have many right-wing friends. Furthermore, my closest friends are right-wing, although we don’t talk much about politics (laughs). I also have many friends on the left. Yes, I admit that after receiving so much violence it is more difficult for me to be with people who don’t understand me, who don’t understand what I’m going through. It’s not sectarianism, it’s solidarity. But I think there are very intelligent right-wing people in this country. I still have some friends in PP. The other day I met García Albiol at a meeting and he seemed like a nice guy Majete. And we are ideological opposites.
Q. Are there any right-wing politicians you admire?
A. For García-Page (laughs). Felipe González. On the right, I respect Felipe González a lot (laughs).