Spain’s right-wing candidate misses last TV clash ahead of the election

Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of centre-right opposition Partido Popular, missed the final political debate aired on public television broadcaster RTVE Wednesday night as the campaign entered crunch time ahead of election day Sunday.

Following the debate between Núñez Feijóo and Socialist candidate and acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on 10 July, the debate on Wednesday will be between Sánchez, far-right VOX party leader Santiago Abascal (ECR) and Labour Minister Yolanda Díaz, leader of the new left-wing platform, Sumar.

However, despite being a strong candidate to win the elections, Núñez Feijóo has declined RTVE’s invitation to attend the debate on Wednesday.

The same applies to candidates running for parties that could be Sánchez’s potential allies, like pro-independence Catalan and Basque parties, El Mundo reported.

A very ‘visible’ absence

The PP leader’s decision not to attend the debate could negatively affect his party on Sunday, experts in political sociology quoted by Spanish media have said.

Sources in the PP say that after the success of the last debate, Núñez Feijóo and his advisers prefer to “protect” and “preserve” the feeling of victory for the conservative party, which all the polls except the state-run CIS poll suggest will continue until election day.

For Sánchez, Núñez Feijóo’s decision could even be a golden opportunity, particularly after many viewed the first debate as a defeat for the sitting prime minister..

While the socialist leader will not have the chance to confront his right-wing rival directly, he will have the opportunity to exchange views with PP’s future coalition partner likely needed to form a stable government, the far-right party VOX.

Two opposing ways of governing

In Sánchez´s view, the new –and last- election debate will show “the two forms of government” that exist in Spain after the regional and municipal elections of 28 May, when his hitherto coalition partner Unidas Podemos (EU Left) “disintegrated” and PP and VOX agreed on several local coalitions, he said Tuesday.

However, in an interview published by El Plural Tuesday, the socialist leader denied that this could become a “second round” or personal “revenge” for the 10 July bitter clash with Núñez Feijóo.

“I think we had a tough debate, a debate in which it was a pity that we could not talk about what matters to the citizens: health, education, pensions, employment… And I think that in this second debate, we are going to see the two forms of the two options for the government that exist after 28 May”, Sánchez pointed out.

“The one who has made the vote for Vox useful in the conservative space is Feijóo himself”, he stressed, while adding that PP’s strategy of casting a shadow over the democratic process and on postal voting is “a desperate attempt to attract VOX voters”.

While PSOE looks to woo undecided voters on Sunday, Sánchez assured that if he is reelected prime minister, his priority for the next term of office will be housing and promoting social policies.

Overthrowing ‘Sanchismo’

The last debate before Sunday’s crucial election could help the 30% of voters who, among the total voter pool, remain uncertain about who to vote for on Sunday.

For VOX, it is almost a political mantra (shared with the PP): to repeal “Sanchismo”,; which is a term used to describe the socialist leader´s way of managing and governing, which, in the opinion of both parties, has an autocratic and “personalist” tinge.

To implement that goal, PP has already announced that it will repeal several laws passed by the coalition government PSOE-Unidas Podemos, including the Law of Democratic Memory and the trans-gender law, and also announced (as has VOX) that it will abolish some ministries, including that of Equality, which has been marked by bitter controversy.

A ‘referendum’ on Sánchez?

“I am going to repeal lies, deceit, arrogance, sectarianism and, therefore, Sanchismo”, the PP leader recently assured.

But, as many experts have suggested, Sunday’s elections, like the regional elections on 28 May, could become an indirect “referendum” on Sánchez: on the person of the socialist leader, whom many within his party do not really like.

This hard core of “nostalgics” of the past, of the “old PSOE” of former Prime Minister Felipe González, accuse Sánchez of being too close to the pro-independence Catalan Republican Left (ERC) and the Basque pro-independence party EH Bildu, and of gaining their support to pass some laws.

The group of “old guard” socialists was very unhappy (as were PP and VOX) that the government had pardoned those responsible for Catalonia’s unilateral declaration of “independence” in 2017, among other hot political dossiers.

Another element that could penalise the chances of a progressive alliance PSOE-Sumar is the past reiterated political cacophonies between the socialist party and the now almost extinct Unidas Podemos on controversial issues such as the labour market reform or Spain’s role in NATO and the war in Ukraine.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.EURACTIV.es)