The right aspires to avoid the blockade and govern after a campaign marked by the 'face to face' of Sánchez and Feijóo

Pensions, voting by mail and tolls on the highways are the focus of the debate between accusations of lies and reproaches for the pacts

MADRID, 22 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) -

This Sunday almost 37.5 million Spaniards are summoned to the polls, in which the PP starts as the favorite according to all the polls except the CIS and with the aspiration of the popular candidate Alberto Núñéz Feijóo to overcome a possible blockade and govern if possible alone. All this after a campaign marked by the 'face to face' debate between Pedro Sánchez and the 'popular' leader and the attempt by the Prime Minister to achieve a 'comeback', with crossed accusations of lies and reproaches for the pacts of both blocs.

The revaluation of pensions, voting by mail and the possibility of establishing tolls on the highways from 2024, have focused the public debate in the last two weeks. Also the reproaches of the left to Feijóo for his friendship with the drug trafficker Marcial Dorado.

An unprecedented campaign, in which the fatigue of a society called to the polls in the middle of summer, just two months after the municipal and regional elections on May 28, has been noted.

In these days prior to the vote, the division into blocks of the political forces has also become clear and the high possibility that the resulting Executive is a coalition or in any case requires a prior agreement between parties to add a majority.

The left has insisted on this idea and even Pedro Sánchez has repeated that if he governs, he will do so in coalition with Sumar, Yolanda Díaz's party. Although according to the polls, he would need the Catalan and Basque independentistas to be able to be sworn in. But there could also be a blockade like the one experienced in 2015 that forced a repeat election in 2016.

Feijóo, on the contrary, has tried to move away from this framework and came to offer an agreement to Sánchez to let the list with the most votes rule and thus avoid the influence of Vox. He took it in writing to the 'face to face' debate on July 10, and signed it right there, but Sánchez rejected it.

This debate was the most important point of the entire campaign, the first time that both fought in this format, which generated great expectations and conditioned the following days. The PP leader attacked the economic data from which the Government draws its chest and blamed his pacts with ERC and Bildu while Sánchez tried to defend himself by replicating with the PP-Vox pacts.

Although Sánchez was a priori the favourite, the result was different from what was expected and most of the media gave Feijóo the winner. In Moncloa they said that the format did not favor him and they charged against "the mountain of lies" that they considered that Feijóo had spread.

The leadership of the PP believes that the debate left the PSOE "collapsed" and "disillusioned", which has not recovered at any time. Moreover, they maintain that the "emotional bond between their electorate and the socialist candidate has decreased."

After the 'face to face' the campaign slowed down while the feeling of comeback that the PSOE had been spurring cooled, sustained by the PP-Vox pacts and its "ultra" profiles in institutions.

From the PSOE they have admitted the difficulty of giving continuity to Sánchez's campaign due to the international commitments to which he was obliged to attend, the NATO summit and later the EU CELAC, from which he was absent to attend a rally in Huesca.

Already in the middle of the campaign, he has tried to recover the spirit of his electorate with appeals to the epic and his victories "against all odds". In addition, the PSOE took a turn in its strategy --many interviews on television and radio-- to hold several rallies in the last week of the campaign and scratch between 7 and 8 deputies in provinces where they "dance" for a handful of votes.

With the wind in favor in the polls, the PP has put the finishing touch on his campaign with the idea that an 'Andalusia effect' is possible, with a transfer of voters from Vox and PSOE that allow Feijóo "not to depend" on those of Abascal.

With this objective, the appeal to the useful vote for the PP has been Feijóo's key message in all his acts, emphasizing that only his party's ballot "guarantees change" and being able to "end sanchismo". In addition, Feijóo has emphasized that Sánchez is willing to "govern by losing" and believes that he seeks to "block" so that elections can be repeated.

In 'Génova' they are "satisfied" with their campaign, and from Feijóo's team they underline that the "right-wing electorate is very mobilized". Despite the controversy with the pensions with which the last week of the campaign began, after Feijóo affirmed that the PP had always revalued them according to the CPI and then had to rectify, the PP has indicated that it has continued in an ascending line in its tracking.

They also ensure that there has been a transfer of votes from both socialist voters and Vox and, furthermore, PP sources have stressed that the campaign "has not gone where it wanted" PSOE and Sumar: "trying to impose Marcial Dorado".

Another issue that has taken over the public debate in the campaign has been voting by mail, whose requests increased notably --up to 2.6 million-- due to vacation dates. Feijóo, who was president of the Post Office in the past, warned that close to half a million Spaniards could be left without voting due to lack of time to receive it.

He also described the current management of the public company as incompetent and asked that the deadlines be extended to guarantee the process. Finally, Correos extended office hours and the JEC extended the term to deposit the vote until Friday the 21st.

Highway tolls have also crept into the campaign, and their possible imposition from 2024. The Government categorically denied this but the Commission corrected it by noting that the proposal is included in the recovery plan. Finally, Sánchez has said that there will be no tolls and that this possibility was eliminated from the negotiation with Brussels.

On its side, Vox has faced this campaign as "decisive", both because of the opportunity to evict Sánchez from Moncloa and because of the possibility of being decisive in the formation of the future Government. These premises have marked all the rallies of Santiago Abascal, which have been divided between the attacks on the Executive and the messages to Feijóo.

Abascal has thrown himself into the electoral campaign with public events throughout Spain to try to ward off the ghost of the useful vote that the PP hoists. Thus, he ignores the drop in deputies indicated by some polls, although he acknowledges that the D'Hont law could make them lose seats even with the 2019 result.

Those of Abascal avoid talking about what they will ask of the PP in the event that Feijóo needs their support, but the Vox leader has recognized that the level of his demands will be marked by the force obtained at the polls.

Yolanda Díaz has focused on claiming that Sumar is the determining force in promoting a new progressive government and its key role in wresting seats from Vox in a multitude of constituencies, aware of the importance of achieving third position.

During the first stretch of the campaign and the previous weeks, Díaz devoted himself to displaying a positive campaign tone, differentiating himself from the belligerents that Podemos had deployed. However, in recent days he has hardened his tone against Feijóo and has reproached him for not explaining the friendship he had with the drug trafficker Marcial Dorado.