Billboards, streets, popular restaurants, rallies, social networks. The two candidates for the president of Ecuador these days occupied all the spaces available to them, sometimes authorized or unauthorized, trying to convince the undecided voters, of which there are not a few. Daniel Noboa even goes to nightclubs as a cardboard cut-out, where he is taken by fans of the social network TikTok banter, which lasts for a few funny seconds that we quickly forget, like when Xavier Hervas dressed up as a jewelry seller on a skateboard. . Luisa puts on her aerobics trainer to exercise outdoors, goes to the park because the gym is only for haters, that is, those who can pay the monthly membership fee.

Singing was second for the vice-presidential candidates. To the tune of “education and health shouldn’t be free” by his running mate Verónica Abad, Noboa dared to say he would close the Secretariat for Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation. When his advisers warned him that nothing excites an Ecuadorian more than studies, he gave up as soon as his political career was over. With the statistics against her, Luisa González, Noboa’s running mate, fought inch by inch to downplay her vice presidential candidate. To the tune of “Ecuador is dollarized, who will dedollarize it?” A dedollarizer who dedollarizes that will be a good dedollarizer,” Andrés Arauz imposed a speech that no one wants to hear.

Nobo in the disco, Luisa in the park, the two wonder how they were convinced to run for president with so little charisma, so little speech, so little stage presence. Furthermore, they question how they agreed to be vice-presidential candidates alongside them, who, if they were not going to contribute, should at least have known when to keep quiet. Two plus two equals four, four and two equals six! Verónica, the trainer, would greatly benefit from greater state investment in education; I would have the opportunity to repeat high school to at least understand how health and education are financed in countries where money is not stolen in bags and which have much better results than us. For Andrés, a versatile player, what is best for him is dollarization and he knows it. Few benefited as much as he did from earnings in dollars, especially when their salaries were tied to purely symbolic positions, such as his engagement in the Ministry of Culture.

There are few truly organic political parties left in Ecuador. Their leaders are waiting, crouching, for us to survive this year and a half presidential break come back stronger. Will they have the wisdom and ability to stop choosing candidates for perfumes that win today and go out of style tomorrow? Will they want to invest these months in rebuilding a relationship of trust with their co-leaders in different cities in the country and calling for a genuine dialogue with civil society? (OR)