The stark offensive of Isabel Díaz Ayuso against Pedro Sánchez is settled today at the polls. This is the essence of an electoral campaign that began with the Prime Minister in the White House and concluded on Friday night with the PSOE general secretary asking socialist voters not to be discouraged by accusations of fraud.
When Alberto Núñez Feijóo reproached the PSOE for the pacts with Bildu, Ayuso called for the banning of the Basque coalition headed by Arnaldo Otegi. When Feijóo tried to change the subject, Ayuso described the Basque Nationalist Party as "racist", a formation with which the current leadership of the Popular Party maintains open channels of contact. When Feijóo slowed down a bit, Ayuso closed the campaign in Madrid with a direct and brutal accusation of the President of the Government of pucherazo, questioning the cleanliness of the next general elections. Donald Trump in vein.
For the people of the right, the central axis of the campaign has been "Ayuso or Sánchez". The media army of conservative Madrid vibrates with her. José María Aznar has gone down to the battlefield with Ayuso's messages, generating an unprecedented confrontation. For the first time since the Ides of March 2004 we have seen a dialectical clash between former presidents Aznar and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero regarding ETA. Aznar announcing that Sánchez, with the support of separatists and communists, will proceed to a "general release" of ETA prisoners. Zapatero replying that Aznar lives on lies: "It has been like this for almost 20 years since he deceived all of us Spaniards with the attack in March 2004 and he has not come out of deception and audacity." Sepulchral silence by Felipe González. Mariano Rajoy's stylistic incursions: "Not even the guy with the most humor in the world can stand four more years of the Frankenstein government."
The Sánchez campaign began with a handshake with the president of the United States, Joe Biden, in Washington – a beginning that the old standards would consider unstoppable – and concluded with a plea against electoral demobilization, with a certain background of anguish. Trigger: the serious case of buying votes by mail detected in Melilla, whose responsibility would fall with the Coalition for Melilla, the main recipient of the Muslim vote in the city, followed by half a dozen cases in small municipalities governed by the Socialists. As dressing, the case of the councilor of Maracena (Granada) kidnapped by an urban pufo. The number two of the Andalusian PSOE is being investigated on this issue. A terrifying end to the campaign for the Socialists. 48 uninterrupted hours of media storm.
The PP campaign began with a Venezuelan televangelist next to Feijóo and has ended with Isabel Díaz Ayuso accusing the Prime Minister of being a criminal.
The socialist campaign started with the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaño, lying on the canvas due to the incident of May 2 and has ended with Bolaño still lying on the canvas. That episode reinforced Díaz Ayuso before the right-wing people. She is the undisputed leader of him and this is already recognized by the European press.
The PSOE raised an air campaign. Sánchez flying over Spain with the blessing of the President of the United States, promising investments and social bonuses, every day in a different square, without going into the substance of local debates, without focusing on his candidates. Faced with the air social democracy, the PP deployed the surface-to-air missiles devised by the previous president of the United States. Emotional fire to delegitimize the adversary, without entering into pragmatic discussions.
The PP has alternated between the Trump manual and Mao's Red Book: "You must not hit with two fists in two different directions at the same time, you must hit with one fist in only one direction each time." Centuries ago, Sunzi put it another way: “Attack him where he is not prepared; Go where you least expect it. When the thunder rolls it's too late to cover your ears."
Sánchez opted for the air campaign and the PP concentrated the attack on the legitimacy of the president, a central argument of the right in the entire legislature. Surprisingly, the mahogany PSOE apparatus was not prepared. The focus on ETA puzzled him. The tremendous weakness of the PSOE in Madrid and the growing fragility in Andalusia have once again become evident, while the defenses of the left in the Valencian Community were working.
The other left has paid the price for the disunity of the Magariños pavilion. Podemos has deployed a feisty urban propaganda guerrilla, while Yolanda Díaz saved efforts, focused on Barcelona and finally in Valencia.
The PP has commanded the campaign and may have made a serious mistake at the last minute by announcing a hellish battle to delegitimize the democratic process. There may be a reaction. There may be a large dropout. Tonight we will know.
