The development of debate this Wednesday on RTVE was reflected from the outset. After starting to speak Santiago Abascal of the supposed “lies & rdquor; of the current government, Pedro Sanchez and Yolanda Diaz they looked at each other and waved their arms in unison, wanting to make way for the other. In the end, the vice president spoke first and then the president, but her initial interventions were practically interchangeable. Both coordinated to tie the great absentee in the appointment, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, with the far-right candidate.
“The proposals of Feijóo and Abascal represent the same thing: a setback of 50 years & rdquor ;, said the Sumar candidate.
“One has to to opt. Either those of us who have worked to improve the lives of Spaniards or we agree with those who have only done destroy and lie& rdquor ;, the leader of the PSOE joined, referring to both Vox and the PP for their continuous votes against of almost all government initiatives.
The dangers
The debate presented some risks for Sánchez. The PSOE explained before its celebration that it represented a new “opportunity & rdquor; before 23J, and partly a “rematch& rdquor; after the failed face to face with Feijóo. But some party leaders warned that the absence of the PP leader, who decided to plant RTVE because they were not going to participate in the meeting ERC, Bildu and the PNV, could turn against the socialist candidate, by serving to reinforce his second halo in dispute that draw almost all the polls.
Sánchez, aware of the danger, behaved safer and calmer than in his exchange last week with Feijóo, which marked the first leg of the campaign. The socialist aspirant made an effort to highlight his presidential Image, defending at all times the action of the Executive and referring to Díaz as “the vice president & rdquor ;. But also, at times, he ran the risk of ceding prominence to Sumar’s candidate, who came to bring up the compromising images taken in the mid-90s of Feijóo together with the drug trafficker Marcial Dorado, with whom the leader of the PP shared trips and vacations
With his main rival off the set, Sánchez treated Abascal as a representative of Feijóo. The criticisms were aimed at one and the other, indistinctly, coinciding with a moment in which the Socialists have recovered from the ‘shock’ of face to face and claim to be rising against the PP and Vox, to the point that they begin to believe that the right and the extreme right will not add up absolute majority next Sunday, allowing Sánchez to explore his investiture.
Faced with this possibility, the President of the Government and the Second Vice President behaved like what they are: partners now and perhaps in the future. There was a white glove between the two, complementing each other in their attacks on Feijóo and Abascal and in their defense of the coalition during these last three and a half years marked first by the pandemic of the coronavirus and later by the war in Ukraine.
In a new sample of harmony, the two took the opportunity to wear down the leader of the PP for the pensions, after he introduced in an interview the false information that his party had always revalued these benefits “according to the CPI & rdquor ;. The Socialists consider that this error, which has been the main stumbling block of Feijóo during the campaign, can have an impact at the polls, because it allows them to emphasize that the Government has raised pensions this year by 8.5% and at the same time allows them to link their main adversary with the “lie & rdquor ;.
“The truth is that the PP and Vox have systematically voted against to revalue pensions & rdquor ;, said Sánchez.
Next to him Diaz agreed. more aggressive that the president with the ultra-right candidate (“I am not afraid of you, Mr. Abascal & rdquor ;, he told him), Sumar’s candidate, in good spirits with her ally in the Executive, also tried to differentiate themselves from the PSOE, stressing that she is in favor of going further than Sánchez in some matters, such as housing, and defending her proposals on the shopping basket, rents and mortgages.
before this two against one, Abascal sought to ignore Díaz and focus on Sánchez, presenting himself as the true leader of the opposition. Trying to wriggle out, he pointed out that the cheap recipes of the PP “agree more & rdquor; with those of the PSOE and Add that with those of Vox. He spoke of the “lies, slander and excuses & rdquor; of Sanchez. She said the president was a “Great scam & rdquor ;. He mentioned the ‘trans law’, the ‘only yes is yes’ and, of course, the parliamentary alliances of the PSOE with Bildu and other “enemies of Spain & rdquor ;. He hardly provided any data. When she did, she skidded, like when she claimed that the labour reform it had been agreed with the aberzale left.
“Bildu voted with you against the labor reform, Mr. Abascal & rdquor ;, the vice president told him quickly. “Indeed. That’s right,” the president agreed.
the two models
It was a lot of discussion less bronco than the one starring Feijóo and Sánchez. More purposeful. But also less relevant, by being tarnished by the sit-in of the PP candidate. Even so, at a time when the PSOE and Sumar are turning to Activate your electorate up to now less mobilized than the right-wing, the appointment served to contrast models and underline the dilemma with which the left tries to set the framework in the elections on Sunday: either a progressive coalition or another of the PP and Vox. There is, in any case, another possibility, that Feijóo gets a result above 150 seats and has the strength not to include the extreme right in his cabinet. But Díaz and Sánchez insisted that the right would share the case with the central executive with the far right, something that it already does in Castilla y León, Valencian Community and Extremadura.
“Sumar is the formation that guarantees that there will be a progressive coalition government that will serve to advance rights. I I want to rule with Pedro Sánchez & rdquor ;, said Díaz.
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The president, who described the PP and Vox as “danger for coexistence & rdquor ;, in reference to the territorial crisis in Catalonia and the possible return to the 2017 scenario, he stressed that there are only “two ways& rdquor; possible to govern Spain: Díaz and him or Feijóo and Abascal. “If I can, I will govern with Mrs. Díaz,” he concluded. It is evident that we are two different organizations but we have worked very loyally and also very effectively. Opposite what there is is a conservative option. But here Mr. Feijóo is missing. He is ashamed to appear with his partner & rdquor ;.