If for the popular it was surreal the location of the PSOE that there were six face to face between Pedro Sánchez and Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the response of the PP is not far behind. The popular accept a face to face, but with whom? He leaves it in the hands of PSOE and Sumar, which are part of the Government itself. And if there is no agreement, he proposes a three-way debate between Sánchez, Feijóo and Yolanda Díaz. The PP is thus trying to open a gap between the two parties in the coalition. The PSOE rejected the proposal, but Sumar immediately accepted it.
The deputy secretary of institutional policy of the PP, Esteban González Pons, responded yesterday to the letter of the secretary of organization of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, from twenty days ago, once the deadline for the submission of the electoral lists had closed. And knowing already “for sure that the Government is going to the next elections represented by two candidates and not by three”, how could it have happened if Podemos had not joined Sumar.
The proposal of the PP is that Feijóo “is willing” and accepts a debate “face to face”. But since the Executive is the first in the coalition, says the letter, “the PP remains waiting for the two forces that make up the coalition Government to communicate which person they appoint for the debate”.
The PP thus offers a face-to-face of Feijóo with Sánchez or Díaz, with whomever the two decide by mutual agreement. In other words: “We accept a face-to-face meeting with Sánchez, if candidate Díaz delegates to him the representation of the wing of the Government that she directs.”
In case the two partners do not agree, the PP offers that the debate be three-way, between Feijóo, Sánchez and Díaz. He would also be ready for a four-way meeting, with the three of them and the leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal. Although he emphasizes that representatives of ERC, EH Bildu and the PNB should be added.
The leadership of the PSOE reluctantly received the letter from González Pons: “The letter distills the same lack of respect and the same insolent tone that permeates all the declarations of the PP”. And despite warning of his “provocations”, he pointed out that it is not the PP who will determine the debates, but the convening media groups – RTVE, Atresmedia, Mediaset and Prisa -, which requested to hold meetings between Sánchez and Feijóo, and debates between the candidates of the four main formations that appear in the elections, that is, the PSOE, the PP, Vox and Sumar. He added, in addition, his readiness to hold sectoral debates, especially economic policy, to confront vice-president Nadia Calviño with whoever determines Feijóo. A debate that the PP rejects, claiming that Calviño does not appear as a candidate on the electoral lists of the PSOE.
“We notice the same eagerness to look for pretexts and avoid debates both yes and no”, lamented the socialists, who again urged Feijóo to decide which of the debates proposed by the media groups he is willing to accept and which not.
All this was formalized by Ferraz’s organizing secretary, Santos Cerdán, with a letter of response to González Pons. When Sánchez challenged Feijóo to hold six face-to-face meetings, one every week until 23-J, the PP rejected it: “Spain is not for eccentricities”. And yesterday Cerdán also described the PP’s conditions as “eccentric”. “I am not surprised that you continue to try to prolong this process so that debates are not held”, warned the secretary of organization of the PSOE. With an undisguised jab: “I understand that your candidate’s skills must be of great concern to you that you are taking so much trouble and reputational cost to your party.” And in Moncloa they corroborate it: “When you don’t have arguments, you don’t want to debate”, they warn.
Cerdán regretted the “strategy of delaying or even canceling the debates” that he attributed to the PP, and warned that it offers “a fleeting and fearful image in the face of such a necessary contrast of ideas”.
In Moncloa they insist that the main face-to-face must be substantiated between the only two possible presidents of the Spanish Government after 23-J, Sánchez and Feijóo, and as often as possible. But in line with Yolanda Díaz’s demand, in Sumar they immediately picked up the gauntlet of the PP to hold a three-way debate: “It’s more like Spain today than a two-way debate.”
