The four-person debate held this Thursday on public radio and television was born with a broken corner due to the refusal announced by Alberto Núñez Feijóo to participate in it along with the other three candidates with the possibility of governing: Pedro Sánchez, Yolanda Díaz and Santiago Abascal. Feijóo’s decision to reject the invitation of a public medium and thus avoid being photographed with Abascal conditioned the possibility of comparing country projects and society models, and that is the democratic objective that an electoral debate must meet so that citizens can anticipate the fate of public budgets and the direction that State policies will take. We do not know if refusing to go to RTVE last night will give Feijóo an electoral bill, but the one he has already paid is that of that “empty chair” while the future of Spain and Europe was being debated four days before the elections in which he himself is a candidate. Thus, the only representative of a hypothetical PP-Vox government —Sánchez and Díaz always spoke of them as a bloc— evidenced the argumentative inconsistency of who could become their vice president, Santiago Abascal. His poor speech has raised the concern of those who fear that extreme right-wing demagoguery and informative distortion could reach the Official State Gazette at the hands of Feijóo.
Last night, a government action and two political programs were confronted with concrete measures (PSOE and Sumar) and a discourse (Vox) that challenges entire parts of reality —from official statistics to the evidence of climate change—, without fear of spreading hoaxes —the European nature restoration law would end “with all arable land in Spain”— or of incurring the conspiracy syndrome by reproaching Sánchez for wearing the 2030 Agenda pin in defense of the plan for the development of United Nations: to Abascal it seems pregnant with very serious dangers. Abascal’s formal correction failed to hide the drive to challenge a good part of the democratic conquests of recent decades in matters that affect half of the population —women’s rights— or the entire population, such as support for the LGTBI collective, the labor reform or the green transition measures.
Last night a great political novelty was staged since the bipartisanship fragmented in Spain in the second decade of the century: two contenders in an election exhibited political and personal complicity and anticipated their future collaboration in an unusual exercise of transparency and political pragmatism. That harmony did not prevent Yolanda Díaz from marking her own territory against Sánchez — “Pedro, we want more” — and, above all, forcefully confronting Abascal in a very evident struggle for third place in the race next Sunday and also between two potential vice presidents of opposing governments. She was probably the winner of the debate. Sánchez dedicated his time to defend her and Díaz’s management, especially the proposals. Abascal avoided references to the PP, and defended Feijóo when Díaz asked him about his relationship with the drug trafficker Marcial Dorado – “it is not normal to say this about someone who is absent” – but with a final message for the popular: “Only Vox dares”.
It is difficult to know the capacity of a debate to mobilize the vote, but what is certain is that Feijóo’s absence robbed the electorate of crucial information about the way in which, if he wins, he intends to limit, manage or negotiate his possible collaboration with a party that includes measures that openly violate structural axes of the Constitution.
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