“In this campaign there are two clear things”, warned Pedro Sánchez just when he took the floor yesterday at the rally he led in Madrid. During one day, the penultimate of the 28-M electoral campaign, very complicated for the PSOE due to a succession of scandals. “The first is that the right will not stop insulting, disqualifying and smearing the campaign”, criticized the president of the central government.
“The second, even clearer and more important, is that, despite this, the left and the PSOE will not stop us, and we will win on May 28!”, cried Sánchez to the applause of the 2,500 supporters who, according to the ‘organization, they went to the auditorium of the forest park in the EntrevÃas neighborhood to accompany the socialist candidates to the Puerta del Sol and Cibeles, Juan Lobato and Reyes Maroto.
In the front row of the event, among other socialist leaders, was the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, protagonist of the latest clash with Isabel DÃaz Ayuso on May 2, and whom the PP links to the alleged vote buying in which two PSOE candidates in Mojácar would have been involved, for the simple fact of spending the summer in this town of Almeria.
To the scandal of Mojácar, however, another hard blow was added yesterday for the socialists, three days before the appointment with the polls, after a judge in Granada saw signs of the possible participation of the current organizing secretary of the Andalusian PSOE, Noel López, in the kidnapping of a councilwoman from the municipality of Maracena. Another alleged vote buying involved the socialist mayor of Albudeite (Murcia), Isabel Peñalver, and another regional candidate. And as a colophon of the black day, the number two of the socialist list in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, José Ãngel MartÃn, resigned from all his positions after being arrested for an alleged assault.
The leadership of the PSOE took a strong hold and warned that they will act with maximum force if imputations are made concrete in all these scandals, after imposing the suspension of precautionary militancy in the case of Mojácar. “Someone who did this, I’m sorry, but he’s not a socialist,” concluded Patxi López, after guaranteeing that all members of the socialist party who are involved in any case of electoral fraud will be swiftly expelled from the party.
At the same time, the PSOE counterattacked with another avalanche of complaints against the PP, also due to alleged cases of electoral fraud, in the municipalities of Palma del Condado and Villalba del Alcor (Huelva), in Casares de las Hurdes (Cáceres), in Bigastre and Finestrat (Alicante) and in Carboneras and Mojácar (Almeria).
After denouncing the dirty nature that is taking the final stretch of the campaign, however, Sánchez maintained his “positive” campaign speech unwaveringly, and defended his management at the EntrevÃas rally, with economic growth , job creation and social peace in Spain. Also his Government work, with the new housing law already published in the BOE, the revaluation of pensions or his commitment to public health and education.
Sánchez also launched a forceful message to mobilize the vote for the PSOE, “massively”, in Madrid, the epicenter of the PP’s territorial power. “I want to make an appeal to all progressive voters, who are the majority in the Community of Madrid”, he warned.
“I want to make an appeal to the mobilization of all the left-wing voters of the Community and the city of Madrid, and that we do what we have to do if we want to point out the exit door to the right”, he insisted. The appeal was clear: “Concentrate the vote on the only party that can make it possible, which is the PSOE”. “Let’s concentrate the vote in the PSOE to say goodbye to Ayuso and Almeida and all the mayors of the PP, and open a new time of progress, rights and dignity of the people!”, he cried.
