On a Friday with thermals over 35 degrees In various corners of Spain, the political parties closed an electoral campaign that began on July 7 with a PP that felt like it was a winner beforehand and a PSOE that was aiming for a comeback. Two weeks later, the postcard left by the main candidates for the elections on Sunday the 23rd seems to be the other way around.
They will be atypical elections, in the middle of summer and the product of a drowning slap from the Spanish left: after a landslide triumph of the right in the municipal and regional elections in May, the president of the PSOE-Podemos coalition government, Pedro Sánchez, was quick to announce the electoral advance of the national elections that were scheduled for December.
The debates marked the heat of a campaign in which there was only one face to face between the two candidates who They compete for the presidential seat: the current president and PSOE candidate for re-election, Pedro Sánchez, and the leader of the Popular Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
The friction between the two candidates benefited Núñez Feijóo, whom the polls continue to give as a favorite. The PPP candidate “strafe” Sánchez with facts and accusations, some of which were later found to be inaccurate.
The socialist, for his part, sought from the beginning of the campaign protection in the achievements of his administration that, although positive in macroeconomic terms, is not reflected in the pocket of the Spaniards, overwhelmed by inflation to which they are not accustomed: milk, for example, costs almost 20 percent more than a year ago.
Spain takes for granted that its next government will once again be a coalition, since none of the main parties -neither PSOE nor PP- will achieve the absolute majority that implies obtaining 176 own seats in Parliament.
Therefore, it will be crucial who occupies the third place in number of votes.
This particularity is disputed by the extreme right of Vox and a new coalition of more than 15 political formations to the left of the Socialist Party, led by Yolanda Díaz, the current Minister of Labor in the government of Pedro Sánchez.
His coalition is called Sumar and it is the great bet of the PSOE candidate to achieve an alliance.
Sánchez bets to overcome it
“The Socialist Party is going to be the first political force. Yolanda Díaz’s party is going to be the third political force. And there are going to be four years of progressive government in Spain,” Pedro Sánchez said Friday from the sports center on the outskirts of central Madrid where he chose to end his campaign.
He did it in Getafe, one of the most industrialized municipalities in the Community of Madrid.
From there, he harangued his people: “Let’s bet everything on red (because of the color that distinguishes his party) to guarantee four more years of progress in our country,” said the PSOE leader.
We fell and got up and we pedaled against the clock and crossed all the goals and climbed all the ports. We have a few meters left until the final sprint and we are going to make it. We are going to win the elections until the last pedal stroke, ”he predicted.
“I see the right and the extreme right out of the bottom,” said Sánchez in what is more a personal wish than an objective reality.
Although he did not do well in the face-to-face debate with Núñez Feijóo, his participation in another public confrontation between candidates returned his smile.
It was on Radiotelevisión Española, the state channel, where Sánchez debated with Yolanda Díaz, from Sumar, and with Santiago Abascal, the president and candidate of Vox.
Complacent with his Minister of Labor and future partner of a possible government, Pedro Sánchez gave prominence to Yolanda Díaz so that she would shine against the extreme right of Vox.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo was also summoned but decided not to attend the debate. From their party they argued that public television was not an impartial environment.
The PP is excited about the majority
The PP candidate preferred to close his campaign on his land, in Galicia.
In an act in La Coruña, Núñez Feijóo asked to be voted for: “I ask for the vote so that in this country we change the shameful coalitions for State pacts that last a long time”, said.
“Not to lead a block or face another block, but to be president of the majority of Spaniards without exceptions of any kind,” added the PP candidate, who had already offered Sánchez, in front of the television cameras, to sign an agreement for him to govern the most voted list, knowing that the polls point to the PP in that position.
“I propose to break the blocks and the blockades in which Spain has lived. That is why I want to be the president of the government of all Spaniards”, said Núñez Feijóo this Friday, feigning dementia about the pacts that he has already signed with Vox in more than 140 municipalities and that, if necessary, he must reissue at the national level to form a government.
Núñez Feijóo and Santiago Abascal, the Vox candidate, overlapped in their campaign closures.
The anger of Vox with the PP
From Plaza Colón in Madrid, the founding setting for Vox’s growth, Abascal spoke to his voters: “It has been the most aggressive, toughest, most difficult campaign, with the most cheating,” he confessed.
“In which each and every one of them has conspired against Vox,” added Santiago Abascal and assured that there were television stations that were dedicated to the systematic demonization of his party.
Angry with the attitude of the PPthe Vox candidate criticized the intention of Núñez Feijóo to agree with the PSOE so that the most voted list governs.
“They have left us alone,” he said in reference to the party of Núñez Feijóo.
“In front of those guilty of the destruction of the concord of the Spaniards. Because they are very determined to repeal sanchismo but they whiten it by offering them a pact ”, Abascal accused the party of Núñez Feijóo.
“And then they dare to ask for the votes of Vox voters so that Sanchismo does not govern he added. And they also ask for the votes of Podemos voters, so as not to depend on Vox.”
Abascal responded to the accusations of censorship that his party received during the campaign: “They are scandalized that we have canceled, when we entered the town halls, the cultural agendas that they had planned. What did you expect? ”, He ironized.
“We are different when we come to power we do what those who have given us trust want. The first thing is to change the cultural policies of the left, ”he emphasized.
Sumar changed the script of the elections
His political opponent for third place in the elections on Sunday the 23rd, Yolanda Díaz, closed his campaign in a park in the south of Madrid.
“We are the decisive force in this campaign. We have changed the script,” Diaz said.
“Vote Sumar as the force that settles the next government,” he asked. Vote with freedom in your head and in your heart.”
A few minutes before, the actress Marisa Paredes had opened the event: “I lived through the years of the dictatorship. We have had enough, ”she said, referring to Vox and the cancellation of several shows scheduled in the town halls where they have governed since May.
“We don’t deserve that to come back. We are here to prevent it,” said the actress.
Madrid. Correspondent
