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Is Spanish politics all about stripping off?

Jessica Jones
Jessica Jones - [email protected]
Is Spanish politics all about stripping off?
A Socialist town hall candidate has been ordered to take down campaign posters in which he appears naked. Photo: laSexta Noticias/Twitter

Yet another Spanish politician has bared all on a campaign poster, in a trend that is increasingly sweeping Spanish politics.

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In a move that is more Chippendale than Churchill, a Socialist candidate has bared all on a campaign poster, the latest politician to court voters by letting it all hang out. 

Naked but for a single strategically placed rose, Socialist candidate Luis Alberto Nicolás, town hall candidate in Meruelo in Cantabria, northern Spain, stares seductively into the camera.

The slogan "I’m better than you and you know it. If not, prove it." is emblazoned across his bare chest.

Nicolás was following the recent tradition of stripping off in campaign posters, but his party have been less than impressed with his efforts.

According to PSOE sources, "no one" in the party was aware of the posters before they were put up and after being notified, Nicolás was told to take them down because "it is not the way the PSOE conduct electoral campaigns," party sources told news agency EFE.

Two photographs were used on the posters, one taken from the front and one from behind, and were accompanied by several different slogans, including one emphasizing the "transparency" of the candidate and the fact he did not have bank accounts in Switzerland or Andorra.

Meruelo has been governed by the Popular Party since 1979, so, according to Nicolás, he felt he needed to go the extra mile and produce something 'memorable' because of the difficulty in persuading local residents to embrace change in the town.

Nicolás put up around 50 posters on walls and businesses around the Meruelo before he was ordered to take them all down.

He originally planned to go ahead with the campaign, until the head of the Socialist election campaign in Cantabria, José Guerrero, got in touch and told him to take down the posters as well as the photographs posted to the Facebook page of the Meruelo PSOE.

It is not the first time a Spanish politician has stripped for votes. In 2006, Albert Rivera launched his new party, Ciudadanos (Citizens) by getting his kit off on a campaign poster.

And it is not just the men who are getting their kit off; far-right political candidate Yolanda Couceiro Morín recently released campaign posters on which she appeared naked to denounce corruption in Spanish politics. 

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