The alleged vote-buying networks investigated by the Civil Guard, one in Melilla and another in Mojácar, may twist the final lines of the electoral campaign.
The revelation that two of those arrested yesterday are councilors for the PSOE candidacy in this town of Almeria opens up a new political scenario just 48 hours before the end of the campaign.
The Popular Party, which until yesterday mid-afternoon had maintained a cautious position regarding the plot – Feijóo did not even address the issue in his campaign events – pointed to the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, who had supported to the candidacy of one of the detainees in a meeting held on May 18, during the pre-campaign.
MEP and deputy secretary of the PP Esteban González Pons assured Melilla that “there is a plot to buy votes that particularly involves Pedro Sánchez because his number two in the Government is the one who presented and promoted Mojácar’s candidacy”. González Pons linked this plot to that of Melilla, which the police, in principle, rule out.
After the arrest of Francisco Bartolomé Flores, the leadership of the PSOE suspended him from militancy. Number five on the list, Cristóbal VizcaÃno, who is also allegedly involved in the electoral fraud network, is not a member of the party, but the PSOE will also take measures against him, as he is on a party list.
However, this reaction seems to be insufficient to contain the potential offensive of the PP, which has found in this matter a new argument to stir the last beats of the campaign. Ciutadans and Vox also joined the chorus yesterday.
The PSOE, beyond the initiatives announced against the militants, avoided deepening the conflict. Pedro Sánchez, who yesterday was in Asturias, one of the seats that the Socialists have secured, did not mention the issue, while from the Socialist leadership it was affirmed that the party does not “make our pulse tremble with any illegal practice” legal or outside a maximum ethical height. If they are involved, a file is opened, expulsion and for justice to judge them”.
So, at least until yesterday, the campaign continued its course. New posters have appeared on the streets of Barcelona. Jaume Collboni, the candidate of the PSC for the mayor of Barcelona, ​​has given up the spotlight and now his photograph appears next to that of Salvador Illa and Pedro Sánchez.
The leader of the PSOE, who has tried to avoid the plebiscite campaign – Sánchez yes, Sánchez no – that Alberto Núñez Feijóo proposed to him from the beginning, cedes his image rights to the candidate from Barcelona, ​​where it is imperative, and possible, to win. And where Pedro Sánchez is supposed to add more than subtract.
It’s the last bet before the strangest, edgiest and anodyne campaign ends tomorrow. It started with the moral siege of Bildu, it has passed through the chairs of the Council of Ministers – Sánchez has not made any announcement related to the Government for two days – the Senate floor, then through the Mestalla stadium and now ends with vote buying scandal.
The leader of the PSOE will close his electoral journey tomorrow at the Vall d’Hebron sports center in Barcelona next to Collboni and accompanied by José Luis RodrÃguez Zapatero and Salvador Illa. All the final effort focused on Barcelona. Yolanda DÃaz will also close the campaign with Ada Colau in Sant Martà Park.
Meanwhile, in Madrid, Isabel DÃaz Ayuso – with a significant absolute majority within reach – will have Feijóo by her side late on Friday, who in the remaining 48 hours will hold meetings in six different places.
Aragon, the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community, chaired in this legislature by progressive governments, are the places that the PP considers affordable and that is where Feijóo will pour these last hours.
Winning in any of these areas would set up a different political scenario. It is an electoral dispute that is played out on two levels, the present and the future. Sunday’s elections and December’s general elections. Both candidates have spent the entire campaign with this perspective.
However, the two leaders are also aware that winning these elections does not mean governing. Neither in this nor in the next December.
In the most immediate, in the elections on Sunday, in most of the autonomous communities – the mechanisms for electing mayors are different – ​​everything will depend on the results obtained by the eventual allies of the PP and the PSOE.
