The last electoral debate to be held tonight on RTVE will finally be “three”, between Pedro Sánchez (PSOE), Santiago Abascal (Vox) and Yolanda Díaz (Sumar), in studio 6 in Prado del Rey, where there is no fourth lectern because Alberto Núñez Fejoó (PP) has continued to decline the invitation of the public entity.
“23J, the final debate” will be of shorter duration than those registered, 90 minutes, and the three candidates will have, as usual in all of them, a final turn of sixty seconds (the so-called golden minute).
In total, each of them will have 24 minutes, or what is the same, eight minutes in each of the three blocks in which the debate will revolve: economy, social policies, and State pacts and post-electoral pacts.
It has been decided by lottery who will open and close each block, but the result has not been disclosed. This is also how the positions of the candidates on the set have been agreed and, according to the image that RTVE has broadcast of the studio, the first on the left will be Abascal, in the center will be Yolanda Díaz, and on the right Pedro Sánchez.
The stopwatches to measure the times of the interventions, managed by professional hockey referees, are being tested and are present on all the screens on the set and visible so that the candidates can manage their times.
It will start at ten o’clock at night and Nuñez Feijoó will not be there, although the popular candidate is counting on the fact that he can be the protagonist indirectly in the debate, as he has commented to the journalists who follow him in the campaign, to whom he has said that he doesn’t care.
On the other hand, he was concerned that with a debate “to four” Sánchez would have tried to stage that he was going with his vice president, Yolanda Díaz and Feijóo with his, Santiago Abascal, a link that the PP rejects. The popular ones insist that the real debate should be seven, with PNV, ERC and EH Bildu.
For the Socialists, the fact that Feijoó does not attend may be his “last and worst mistake”, according to sources from Ferraz, who underline the controversy “over the lies, with González Pons launching harsh criticism of all Spanish television”. The PP’s way of understanding public television is “that of a single party”, they add.
The absence of Feijoó, according to Ferraz’s sources, will leave the entire field of the right and extreme right to Abascal, a strategy -they point out- that “many do not understand even in the PP”, although the reality -they say- is that ” so many lies can’t bear more than one debate”.
The PSOE sees the debate as one more opportunity to address millions of Spaniards and for them to see the two options that exist to govern: “PSOE and Sumar, or PP and the ultras, only that the PP – they affirm – will be represented by Santiago Abascal, we assume that as the future Vice President of the Government of a hypothetical Government of Feijóo”.
Santiago Abascal, as he assures, it is good for Vox’s speech to reach the Spanish “directly”, although he imagines that it will be between “interruptions”, “insults”, “traps” and “magic tricks” of the president of the government.
Whoever does not attend Feijoó believes that it will not be good for “neither him, nor the Spaniards who will not listen to a part of the political offer that there is. He believes that a debate “with four”, as initially planned, is more representative of the plurality of Spain.
Meanwhile, in Sumar the debate is faced as a “key” milestone of the campaign, as recognized by Yolanda Díaz herself, who has also appreciated the opportunity to present her “country project” to Spain.
For this reason, his intention is to raise a positive debate in contrast to the ‘face to face’ that Sánchez and Feijóo carried out. The absence of the popular candidate in this last debate has been criticized throughout the campaign by Díaz because he understands that he “does not want to submit to the scrutiny of all Spaniards” and because he “is afraid.”
