Sarah Santaolalla is looking forward to the time to take the helm of 'En Línea'. Less than 24 hours before the premiere of La Séptima, the presenter spoke with 'ElConstitucional.es' during the channel's presentation to preview what the public will find in her program, which will air Monday to Friday from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. There will be current affairs, interviews, discussions, and space for her opinions. "I'm going to get involved in everything," she assures.
The start this Thursday comes after many hours of preparation and rehearsals. "I hope everything goes well, that we can make a great program," explains Santaolalla, who faces the premiere with emotion and reserves some of her main names for the first broadcast. She does anticipate that she will be accompanied by four commentators known to viewers and that she will interview a politician who has been much talked about in recent weeks.
The guest's identity remains guarded, although the presenter leaves some clues about the tone with which she wants to receive him. "In addition to being a good politician, he is a good guy and I think we have to start the program with the best energy in the world," she points out. That desire coexists with the difficulty of getting in front of the cameras after the railway tragedy that has marked the news of recent days and which is also present in her conversation with this newspaper.
Her opinion will have a defined place within the program. Santaolalla announces editorials and also interventions at the debate table, from which she promises to get involved in the issues addressed. "I've already bought my boots to get into the mud," she jokes, before insisting that there will be "no beating around the bush, no censorship."
In that declaration of intentions, she introduces a particularly recognizable message after what happened on Tuesday in 'La tarde de Telemadrid', where a group of striking teachers burst in to demand attention to their demands and Christian Gálvez ended up cutting to commercials. Santaolalla is clear about her response. "Here, teachers are not kicked off the set, they stay here."
The invitation to Feijóo and Abascal remains open
The presenter also confirms that she maintains interview requests for Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Santiago Abascal. She wants both the Popular Party and the far-right Vox to come to the program and answer her questions. "The interviews have been requested, they are still on the table," she explains, without announcing for the moment that either of them has accepted.
The invitation to the Vox leader comes with a jab about the schedule of 'En Línea'. "They have given me a program from three in the afternoon to five in the afternoon so that it doesn't catch him asleep," she ironizes. Then she insists that the request is firm and extends to other right-wing candidates. "I don't understand a plural TV without them being able to be there and be part of it."
Santaolalla links this plurality with a way of practicing journalism in which facts must guide the narrative. To explain it, she resorts to images of police actions against teachers during protests. If they show a teacher peacefully demonstrating and a disproportionate intervention, she argues, the program must tell it in those terms.
"If the images show that, I'm going to tell that," she states. The presenter believes that clearly describing an abuse is part of her responsibility to those on the other side of the screen. In her response, she returns to public education and the treatment teachers receive, but extends that commitment to all citizens.
The interview ends with another warning about the criticism she expects to receive when the broadcasts begin. "Of course they will call me many things, but they will not be able to call me a liar."
