Early elections in Spain: Pedro Sánchez ups the ante, with a high-risk move

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Pedro Sánchez has done it again. As if it were a reflexive gesture, every time he feels “not chosen” and before his lives run out and the video game tells him “game over”, he manages to activate a change of script, a wink that diverts the audience’s attention where he wants the Spaniards to look.

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It just happened. When all eyes are focused on the consolidation of the right which on the night of May 28 was consecrated as the favorite in the municipal and regional elections, divert and up the ante.

This Monday, just over 12 hours had passed since the polling stations – open until 20:00 on Sunday – closed, and while their political opponents and their partners for convenience, all sleepy, were still analyzing the result of the polls, the president of the government has announced that it will deliver a message from the Palacio de la Moncloa in mid-morning. But that he wouldn’t answer questions.

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“I made this decision in view of yesterday’s results”She said.

The president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo.  Photo EFE

The president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo. Photo EFE

schedule change

With those few words, Pedro Sánchez managed to make the clamor of the Popular Party last less than a night of conquest.

And if on Sunday the Spaniards went to bed with the postcard of a Spain dyed blue – the color of PP – which they showed on TV and on websites, this morning the conversation in the bars was monothematic: who to vote for on July 23 and who will be the next president of Spain.

Less than 24 hours after having voted to renew the authorities of the municipalities and some autonomous communities, the Spaniards will return to the polls on July 23 for the general elections, appointment that was scheduled for December in the electoral calendar.

Pedro Sánchez had already done so in 2019, days after feeling the lack of love that, without euphemisms, right-wing parties professed for him when they met in Madrid’s Plaza Colón to ask him to leave.

For a united Spain. Elections now! was the motto of the event that brought together thousands of Spaniards.

The “photo of Colón” protagonist of PP, Ciudadanos and Vox – and which had a political cost, especially for the two parties that were not far-right – hurt Sánchez who, given the impossibility of approving the General State Budgets, announced early elections five days after the demonstration.

The “sleeping” militancy.

“A government has an obligation to fulfill its task: pass laws, govern, move forward. When some parties block the decision-making process, elections must be called,” he said on February 15, 2019, eight and a half months after arriving at Moncloa Palace. hand in hand with a motion of censure with which he had evicted Mariano Rajoy.

The move didn’t go badly. The PSOE got almost 7.5 million votes in that election preview. In second place, the PP raised less than 4.5 million.

Isabel Diaz Ayuso and Jose Luis Martinez Almeida, of the PP, celebrate in Madrid.  photo by AFP

Isabel Diaz Ayuso and Jose Luis Martinez Almeida, of the PP, celebrate in Madrid. photo by AFP

Four years ago, the current president appealed to a left-wing electorate outraged by the fall of a progressive government.

Today I have It is urgent to wake up those 400,000 PSOE voters who preferred to stay at home on Sunday 28th.

This time, the electoral race burning in Sánchez’s hands is also a tool that will allow him to exert pressure. To your left and to your right.

It forces the parties to the left of the PSOE -Podemos, Izquierda Unida, Sumar- make a deal and show up together.

And it affects the PP which will certainly try to postpone until after 23 July lThe essential agreements with Vox to govern in the territories it took from the PSOE. By then, new municipal governments should already be formed. For autonomous parliaments there would be a longer term.

“There is only one method to resolve these doubts, which is democracy,” a serious Sánchez said on Monday with a tired expression, standing on the steps where he receives the heads of state who visit him in La Moncloa .

“The best thing is that the Spanish speak and pronounce define the course of the country without delay,” he added.

As in 2019, Sánchez wants to speed up the election so his government doesn’t keep fading away. Before he withers away, the general secretary of the PSOE bets on a new sun.

“He has not yet revealed whether he will run” they speculate in the corridors of Calle Génova, headquarters of the PP.

Does anyone dare to doubt it?

Source: Clarin

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