Legislative elections: Spanish votes more divided than ever | Spain

Spanish politics is a hotbed of real and apocryphal polls over the past few hours, suggesting that the right wing will not count, but no one is confident because it is not so far from reaching it. It all depends on the participation and the division between the three who fight in a disembodied way for the direction of the right.

Politics is made with images. The videos of Vox's many meetings, especially those of Valencia and Madrid, in the Plaza de Colón, are being broadcast at full speed. The PSOE has had very great acts. The PP made great efforts to close at the Palacio de los Deportes in Madrid. But no party managed to concentrate as many people as the Santiago Abascal formation.

Veteran politicians warn: it's much easier to stuff meetings than to fill ballot boxes. "In the eighties, Manuel Fraga systematically invaded the bullring of Valencia, and then the PSOE doubled us in votes here," commented several leaders of the Valencian PP on Friday.

In addition, they point out that these spectacular images have a double effect: they encourage your people but they can mobilize much more those on the other side. None of these seasoned politicians have forgotten the biggest gathering of recent history, which is never repeatable. The PP of José María Aznar and Eduardo Zaplana, then almighty president of the Generalitat Valenciana, managed to fill the stadium of Valencia, Mestalla, in the elections of 1996. According to estimates, there would be 55,000 people. The images with Aznar, Zaplana and Julio Iglesias as major protagonists demonstrate the enormous strength of the PP, to which the polls have earned him a gain of 10 or 12 points of difference.

Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, a key man in this campaign, still remembers the amazement felt by Aznar and his entire team when the first polls told them that they were going to lose the elections for the third time while the PSOE was at home. power. theory cast by corruption scandals. "It was a surprise that in 1993 we had not won." At 8:30 pm, when the first Israelitesin Aznar's office, there was total confusion. We lost after the count and at the last minute, we won very little, "he recalls.

Guru Pedro Arriola, still worried about the vote of fear on the right, then speculated that Mestalla's images had mobilized the left and almost gave the PSOE victory. Rodriguez believes that it was not really Mestalla, but the campaign of Felipe González, who still had a lot of strength and who made a last fight. But few people deny that a good part of the Spaniards will vote this time with fear of Vox.

Some doubt it. "The problem is precisely that Vox does not give enough fear.The Pen or Salvini scare.But Vox is too ridiculous.We do not believe it.We make fun of them.Landismo is taken to the And that is the drama, because it may be why they are more dangerous, "says a veteran of the PP.

The campaign has served a lot of things. All indications are that it has reached an important mobilization, with two debates with record audiences that have dominated the scene and have allowed Podemos and Ciudadanos, those who are better off, to recover positions in their blocks. But it also serves journalists who follow her to travel to Spain and try to guess what is happening.

Move these days across the country from the impacts. There is unprecedented interest in these unpredictable elections. Everywhere we talk about politics. This is speculated and debated. Night falls in Valencia. A senior couple walk near the Turia. They argue over who is most responsible for the growth of Vox, if only the right or the left who did not change the education when he was governing. Noon to Barajas airport. Four leaders see on the mobile of one of them a video of a Vox meeting where Iván Espinosa de los Monteros makes a joke in which Sanchez and Iglesias are the thieves who are trying to to enter his house to steal and Abascal the hard one who protects her. Two die of laughter. The two others put their hands in the head. A restaurant in Valencia. A young couple dines the next day watching the same video of Vox. He learns to laugh with his girlfriend. The girl holds little. "Dani, enough, do you like it, I can not stand you." He continues to see him alone.

Spain seems to be at this moment the final scene of Thesis, the first feature film of Amenábar. All the patients in the hospital watched hypnotized the snuff film on your screens. Vox has the same hypnotic effect in the strangest campaign of recent years. Nobody can stop watching. Now, it remains only to know whether it is simply morbid ephemera for networks, or has come to stay and dominate Spanish politics. Voters decide.