Yesterday, Monday, the first of the six electoral debates that Pedro Sánchez proposed, without any success, to Alberto Núñez Feijóo was to be held. In anticipation of at least one face-to-face between the two main contenders, the President of the Government began to design yesterday in Ferraz the strategy with which he will deploy the electoral program for the 23-J. With an initial focus on economic policy and the management of the first vice-president and Minister of Economy, Nadia Calviño, to contrast it with the absence of a project and team in the matter attributed to Feijóo.
“There is nothing against the responsible and coherent economic policy of the Government. What proposal does the PP have, how will it reduce the debt if it lowers taxes? Any citizen knows that lowering the debt by lowering taxes means cuts in the welfare state”, warned Calviño.
Despite not having a PSOE card or appearing on the lists, the vice president appeared for the first time in Ferraz to claim the socialist economic agenda and warn against the model that Feijóo can deploy if he achieves the goal of reaching Moncloa.
Calviño asked the leader of the PP to define himself. “At this moment, we don’t know who, what, or why,” he warned about Feijóo’s economic model and who will embody it, which is still an unknown. And he ordered him to “clarify” if his proposal is to repeal the increase in pensions, the increase in the minimum wage or the labor reform. “It is urgent”, he asked, that the PP define the economic proposals with which it will present itself in the elections. The Government’s economic policy, on the other hand, assured that all citizens are already familiar with it, and that it “works”, as he claimed is demonstrated by the economic growth and job creation registered in Spain.
The extreme defense of economic orthodoxy caused Calviño to collide repeatedly, in this legislature, with Yolanda Díaz and Unides Podem. But yesterday he assured that he had “a total alignment” with Sánchez on the economic agenda and, after considering the purple training liquidated after 28-M, he minimized management in the matter. “It is true that the minority partner has had virtually no influence on economic policy”, he emphasized.
“It is not the time to stop or go back”, he warned in any case about the alleged intentions of Feijóo if he gets the presidency of the government. Therefore, he hastened that the leader of the PP define the economic agenda and summoned him to designate a person in charge with whom he could confront his projects.
Juan Bravo, Luis Garicano, Pablo Hernández de Cos…? “I don’t have any kind of preference”, Calviño said about the possible economic manager that Feijóo appoints. And he admitted that he doesn’t care who he chooses, but he summoned him to do it urgently. With an argument that he emphasized repeatedly: “You don’t play with food.”
“Economic policy affects all areas of citizens’ lives, and, for this reason, we should have a specific debate with the person who coordinates the economic policy of the PP as soon as possible”, he asked.
The vice president held a meeting in Ferraz with Sánchez, to start defining proposals and priorities of the electoral program, where Teresa Ribera, María Jesús Montero, Félix Bolaños and José Luis Escrivá also attended. But, for now, the proposals are reserved, which will be deployed during the campaign.
Sánchez wants to put with Calviño the focus of the campaign on economic policy, to highlight the management of the progressive Government in the last legislature, although the strategy did not work in the autonomous and municipal elections, after which the PSOE will lose most of the territorial power. And Calviño admitted that the economic management of the Executive, ratified by data from the IMF, the ECB or the OECD, is overshadowed by other issues with which the PP obtains good electoral returns. “One of the phenomena we have experienced these years is the difficulty of communicating the management of the Government in an environment of tension and noise that does not benefit democratic coexistence in any way”.
The PSOE is still pressuring the PP to agree on the electoral debates. Still unsuccessful. “They continue to give extensions”, lamented the organizing secretary, Santos Cerdán, after calling the general coordinator of the PP, Elías Bendodo, who in turn referred him to Esteban González Pons as an interlocutor. The PP also did not commit to allowing Calviño to debate economic policy with anyone. “What they seem to be hiding are tax increases and social and rights cuts, as happened the last time the right came to power,” warned Cerdán. But he warned: “You can tiptoe to the presidency of the PP, but not to Moncloa”.
