Reconquer Barcelona and Valencia, retain the jewel in the crown that is Seville and even “give a scare” to the Popular Party in Madrid. These are the main objectives that Pedro Sánchez has in his electoral target in this 28-M campaign, where he also has expectations of recovering other capitals, such as Zaragoza, Vitoria, Pamplona and even Malaga. The head of the Executive thus goes on the attack, but he also has much more to defend than Alberto Núñez Feijóo, because his priority is also to revalidate the presidency of the nine communities governed by the PSOE.
Sánchez plans to share the stage with all the regional presidents of the PSOE, close or distant, until the appointment with the polls. Also with the two least similar and most disagreeing with some of his parliamentary decisions and alliances, such as the Castilian-La Mancha Emiliano GarcÃa-Page and the Aragonese Javier Lambán.
But on the first day of the start of the official campaign, next Friday, the Prime Minister will already take over the entire political agenda thanks to his planned first meeting with Joe Biden at the White House. Sánchez is willing to take the initiative and impose his agenda on Feijóo throughout the campaign. And being the current tenant of the Moncloa facilitates this task to a great degree.
“Our government management is our best electoral guarantee,” Sánchez repeats at each rally, in which he has spent days chaining announcements about new measures that the Council of Ministers will adopt, especially aimed at young people and the most vulnerable. Thus, in Pamplona he announced an investment of 1,300 million euros to promote professional training; in Malaga, an injection of 478 million in tourism projects; in Alicante, another 560 million to reinforce public education; in Murcia, financing and discounts for young people to travel this summer, and yesterday, in Tenerife, guarantees of up to 20% of the mortgage for the first home of young people and families with dependent minors.
The intention of the leader of the PSOE is to transform the “Friday of pain” that he attributed to the weekly meetings of the Executive of Mariano Rajoy, “to apply economic and social cuts, and devaluations of rights”, into a new Tuesday, the day on which meets the Council of Ministers, “of social progress.” “We are leading the campaign, with announcements and initiatives in social matters and rights, in defense of dignity, in the face of a PP without a campaign, with no other message than insults and no other initiative than disqualification”, they highlight in the direction of the PSOE.
The 28-M are not generals, but they look like it. Alberto Núñez Feijóo thinks that it may be the first step to be president of the Government. This is the objective that led him to abandon the presidency of the Xunta and move to Madrid. He has been touring Spain for a year, but now, in twenty days, he will have fifty acts in all the autonomies.
Only in the last week of the campaign will he visit nine, and some will go on several occasions. No destiny is accidental. The opening and closing acts of the campaign set their aspirations: rally in Valencia, pasting of posters in Extremadura and the first day of the campaign, Castilla-La Mancha.
A lot is played in those squares. Nothing is certain, but everything is possible. As Feijóo says, “the ball is on the post”, whether it goes in or out, is yet to be decided.
If Pedro Sánchez loses one of those governments, it will be a triumph for the PP, and although the elections are at stake for his candidates, Feijóo is here to help and has already told the leaders that he will be responsible for the results.
Feijóo wants to win and govern in more places than now. In this campaign, the PP sees the PSOE on the defensive in the squares won in 2019. A victory would give the PP leader the push to have the majority that allows him to govern without Vox.
That will be later. Now the goal is to win. His aspiration is that Spain is dyed blue on electoral night so that he can say, after seven years, that the PP has won in an election that affects all of Spain. The PP has not won for a long time. Neither general, nor European nor municipal. The last municipal ones were lost by seven points.
Governing will be something else, because it needs allies. But if he does not govern where he wins, he will have the speech made for the generals: it is not enough to win, he needs a large and broad majority, because otherwise Sánchez will continue with Podemos and the independentistas.
Feijóo’s campaign speech will focus on Sánchez. In the consequences of the law of only yes is yes; the repeal of the crime of sedition; the reduction of penalties for embezzlement that Europe is now questioning. He will also try to refute the economic policy based on remembering the increase in taxes and the inflation that suffocates families.
Feijóo aspires to add to the faithful vote of the PP that of those who abandoned them “because of the mistakes we made”, that is, the voters who went over to Vox. He knows that most of the Ciudadanos electorate has already opted for the PP and aspires to attract socialist voters who “feel betrayed.”
