A close campaign with thick ammunition | Strong …

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From Madrid

The main candidates for the presidency of the Spanish government closed the electoral campaign with thick ammunition. The electoral dynamics of these times, in which the elector decides to vote at the last minute, forces the political leaders to reserve impact statements on the final section. The context of uncertainty and tension that has settled in the Iberian country, with the aggravation of the territorial conflict in Catalonia and the irruption of the extreme right, contributes to make it so.

In one of the most relevant statements of the last day of the campaign, the President of the Government and Socialist candidate, Pedro Sánchez, put in his mouth the words he has avoided uttering since the announcement of the advance of February 15 elections. In an interview given Friday to the newspaper El País, he said that he would have no problems for which Unidas Podemos (UP) occupies positions in a coalition government. An option that escaped two televised debates this week, following the repeated questions of Pablo Iglesias, who badociated the silence of the Socialist to the possibility that the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) reiterates a pact with the citizens (Cs ). An agreement that looks with good eyes at the Spanish establishment.

During the campaign, the PSOE tried to pull the votes of the left in favor of forming a government alone. However, no survey reflects this scenario. In the best case, socialism would get between 120 and 130 seats and it would need 50 additional seats to form the parliamentary majority of 176 members to form a government. From this need arise doubts about the strength that Sanchez could choose to stay at La Moncloa.

The candidate of the Popular Party (PP), Pablo Casado, has also not been deprived of changing the final straight of the campaign, although his statement is an additional glare in the furious concatenation of lies and nonsense that has flocked in the last two months. In an interview with Radio.es, a station linked to the right electorate, the young popular leader suggested the entrance of the right-wing Vox party into a government he presided over. "Vox and Citizens, who have 10 seats or 40, will have the influence they want, enter the government, decide on the investiture or the legislature," he said before explaining that the three forces did not have to compete.

Later, in another statement that deepens his endorsement with the party led by Santiago Abascal, the leader of the popular, said that "the elector of Vox asked the PP" what he now proposes as that leader of the force, making the difference. with his predecessor, the former Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy. A message that not only legitimizes Vox's radical discourse, but also understands it.

On the other hand, the idea of ​​a government coalition formed of the PP, Cs and Vox was above all a ghost that the PSOE and United Podemos were shaking during the campaign. Right-wing leaders Casado and Albert Rivera spoke of the possibility of governing only jointly and, if necessary, with the legislative support of Vox. However, in his radio interview, the PP candidate was, for the first time, openly open to the idea that a Vox executive could hold a ministerial position.

On the Cs side, there were also surprises on the electoral fence. After the hand-to-hand combat that Casado and Rivera played on television during their dispute over the right electorate, the Cs president launched a surprise attack with Ángel Garrido's signature. Former president of the Community of Madrid and popular leader since 1991, Garrido said he left for Cs convinced and disappointed with the direction taken by his former strength. Logically, the president of Cs took advantage of the new laissez-pbader to continue to besiege the PP. "If I lost seats, I would wonder what I did wrong," he said at an economic breakfast in the Spanish capital.

Between so much fire and heavy artillery, the leader of United We can bet by a reverse strategy. Even for the last days of the campaign. His great electoral success has been reflected in the two televised debates he has played with Sánchez, Rivera and Casado. Even the most conservative press in Spain has regained its reasonable profile and the moderate tone with which it descended into electoral mud. The truth is that Iglesias has been diverted from the quarrels between the candidates and has devoted its interventions to proposals such as VAT reduction on basic necessities and feminine hygiene items, or to propose a dialogue and a national reconciliation to face the conflict. of Catalonia. The only time he changed his style was to pressure Sánchez to define a possible deal with Cs. A warning that served to show itself as the only remaining guarantee.

Apart from headlines and television studios, the ultra Vox party continued its caravan of meetings in different cities of the country. This Thursday, he celebrated his biggest event in Valencia, where he gathered more than six thousand fans. Under the impulse of thousands of Spanish flags, Abascal called for the vote to defend "the survival of the nation" and avoid "a new pagre dictatorship", with reference to the executive resulting from the motion of censorship led by Sánchez.

The electoral fence was held at Plaza Colón in Madrid. The same place where he met Casado and Rivera to reject the dialogue of La Moncloa with the Government of Catalonia, which precipitated the call for early elections. An episode in which Abascal played a leading role. A role that could extend to national politics and that nobody wants to recognize, even if the election campaign shows its silent and frightening progress.