The special envoy who dreams of disembarking in the Galician campaign and leaving the Catalan political fog behind for a few days will suffer a huge disappointment. Because there is also talk of Catalonia.
In particular, the candidate of the Popular Party and president of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda, there is not a day that he does not bring up the Catalan issue at meetings – on average, he does three a day. It is your resource.
Or rather, his antidote – on February 18 we will see if it works or not – against the coalition that threatens to take away his absolute majority.
Just yesterday, at noon, at a lunch in Lugo, he used the Catalan argument against his main adversary in this campaign, the Galician Nationalist Bloc, “the independence partner of Catalonia”. In the afternoon, in Arteixo, near A Coruña, he reproached the adversaries for “the dependence on Catalonia and Waterloo”. And so every day.
In the debate on Televisió de Galicia on Monday night, Rueda went so far as to say that the cancellation of the Catalan debt “will cost every Galician 400 euros, everyone, even the children who are now sleeping”.
The opposition groups take Rueda’s Catalan invectives with resignation. At least in the Socialist Party of Galicia. “ Besteiro [the head of the PSdeG list] is one of the politicians who have no complexes on this issue. If you need to respond, respond”, they assure their team.
By the way, Salvador Illa will be in Galicia on Friday to support the Galician socialist campaign.
For their part, the Bloc is already used to it. Rueda has regularly used the Catalan argument in the debates with Ana Pontón in the Galician Parliament.
Puigdemont does not know how famous he is in Galicia, which does not mean that he is highly regarded.
The PP tries to persuade the voters that it is better to stay as they are, in the protection of the absolute majority.
During the pre-campaign they released a video promoting Galicia as a place where everything remains the same. The “island of stability”, it was called. A campaign for which the Central Electoral Board has opened a disciplinary file for non-compliance with the regulations.
In the meantime, it has already become clear that Rueda will not participate in any other campaign debate after ruling out his intervention in what Televisió Española has called and to which they have said that Ana Pontón and José Ramón Gómez Besteiro will attend.
Perhaps it will be a little strange, since it is presumed that both could become partners if they overturn the absolute majority of the PP.
As the weekend approaches, when Galicia celebrates Entroido, the carnival – one of the community’s great popular festivals -, the campaign agenda is filling up with relevant calls . Pedro Sánchez will return to Galicia on Saturday to once again support Besteiro and is scheduled to return on Friday to close the campaign.
Tomorrow Ana Pontón – who yesterday received the support of the Nobel Prize, Pérez Esquivel – will hold an event with Xosé Manuel Beiras, who in this campaign has returned to the Bloc.
The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, already returned to Galicia last night to participate in a campaign event in the parallel route to that of Alfonso Rueda. Tomorrow, for the second time, the candidate to preside over the Xunta and the party leader will meet again.
On Saturday, the Podemos candidate, Isabel Faraldo, will receive the support of Ione Belarra and Irene Montero in A Coruña.
