The Spanish election campaign, as expected, has been a constant crossfire of accusations and dirty narratives, especially between Alberto Nunez Feijoo, candidate of the conservative opposition Partido Popular (PP), and current socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
“Your corruption cases are bigger than mine, your pacts with extreme parties are bigger than mine, your lies are bigger than mine” – these themes have dominated the social and traditional media landscape.
In other words, a constant and tiring battle to prove that the opponent is a far more risky and unacceptable candidate for Spain’s top job, instead of offering voters constructive proposals for the country’s future.
As the campaign reaches the final stage before D-day on Sunday, polls suggest a neck-and-neck race between the leftist bloc of PSOE and Sumar – with the support of nationalist parties – and a right-wing bloc comprising PP (EPP) and Vox (ECR).
The general campaign was preceded by a proxy campaign with the municipal and regional elections in May.
Instead of focusing on regional politics, that campaign turned into a fight between the two main parties for the leadership of the country. After the catastrophic results for the left bloc, Sánchez called snap elections for June instead of September.
The campaign started with corruption, the skeleton in the closet of Spanish political parties.
In March, Feijóo was faced with PP’s latest scandal – a state-sanctioned espionage operation under PP’s government before the socialists, conducted by the National Police under the command of the Ministry of Interior to extract sensitive information pointing to the party’s corruption as well as the deliberate effort by police to discredit opposition political leaders – used by left-wing forces to frame PP as a corrupt party.
Shortly after, the PP tried to hide their dirty dishes by amplifying the case of a socialist MP who offered public contracts in exchange for bribes, also casting doubts over the PSOE as an unreliable, corrupt party.
From corruption, the narrative moved on to PSOE’s and PP’s pacts with “extreme” parties.
On one hand, the left bloc capitalised on all the governing coalitions between PP and far-right Vox in several Spanish regions and uncountable municipalities.
That a pro-Franco ex-bullfighter from Vox should become Valencia region’s vice president and minister of culture was definitely the cherry on the cake, though it was the censorship of LGBTIQ+ flags, theatre plays, movies, and books in several municipalities that gave the socialists the most ammunition.
On the other hand, the PP and Vox capitalised on the pacts that socialists had to strike with the Catalan and Basque nationalist parties to form the government and be able to pass legislation, with particular focus on the Basque party EH Bildu, linked in the past to the now-defunct ETA terrorist organisation.
Que te vote Txapote! (May Txapote vote for you!), for example, has been a recurrent motto used by the right-wing camp on social media, shirts, banners, and all kinds of other channels. The Twist? Francisco Javier García Gaztelu, aka Txapote, was an unrepentant ETA terrorist who killed 13 people.
Even ETA’s victims demanded that the right-wing bloc stop using this motto and the victims’ suffering for political gains.
From the pacts with dubious partners, the narrative shifted again to leaders accusing each other of spreading lies and fake news after the only face-to-face debate between Feijóo and Sánchez on 10 July.
In the debate, Feijóo dropped lie after lie, manipulation after manipulation, while the moderators stood still without intervening. Sánchez, albeit to a lesser extent, threw in his share of inaccuracies and half-truths.
Thankfully, in successive debates this week, major Spanish media have fact-checked every single piece of data uttered by the leaders, showing beyond doubt that they brazenly lied to their audiences.
Some of the most jaw-dropping lies include Feijóo’s assertion that the spyware software Pegasus espionage investigation was closed due to the lack of cooperation by Sánchez – it was closed due to Morocco’s refusal to cooperate – and that the PP has always voted in favour of revalorising pensions following the inflation rate – when, in fact, they repeatedly have not.
The Roundup
The new Sumar party has opened the door for all left-wing forces to work together ahead of this weekend’s Spanish and next year’s EU elections, paving the way for the European Greens to boost their political weight in Spain.
French President Emmanuel Macron sacked seven ministers in a government reshuffle on Thursday, with National Education Minister Pap Ndiaye and Health Minister François Braun among those to make way.
Greece’s independent Data Protection Authority announced on Thursday (20 July) that more than 350 SMS messages related to the Predator spyware programme had been sent, and 92 people identified as targets.
The UK government has reacted angrily after the European Union used the Argentine term for the Falkland Islands, the British territory whose occupation by Argentina’s military junta in 1982 prompted a war between the two countries, in a version of the EU’s statement at the end of its summit with the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.
The number of Europeans struggling to heat their homes has significantly increased as a result of the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to new data published by Eurostat. 9.3% of the population were unable to keep their homes adequately warm in 2022, a jump from 6.9% the year before.
The decision by EU climate chief Frans Timmermans’ to quit the European Commission to lead the joint list of the Dutch Labour Party and GroenLinks has prompted angry reactions from right-wingers at home and across Europe.
Look out for…
- Commissioner Kadri Simson attends Energy Transition Ministerial Meeting of G20 in India on Saturday.
- Informal meeting of competitiveness ministers (Internal market and industry) on Monday-Tuesday.
Views are the author’s
[Edited by Benjamin Fox]
Source: euractiv.com
