After starting in Seville and making stops in Toledo and Zaragoza, and despite the parenthesis that forced the positive in covid -which prevented him from attending the PSC Rose festivities in Gavà and the PSdeG in Oroso-, Pedro Sánchez reactivated yesterday in Getafe its long pre-election campaign before the appointment with the municipal and regional polls next May.
The bet is maximum and only until the end of the year, provided that his agenda as president allows it, he plans to star in thirty acts of the campaign The Government of the people. With the corresponding deployment of the proximity agenda with the problems of citizens: Sánchez also visited a pastry shop and a solidarity market yesterday, sharing kisses, hugs and selfies. "The madness has been mounted," stressed the mayor of Getafe, the socialist Sara Hernández.
In Moncloa and in Ferraz, meanwhile, they glimpse the May elections with the aspiration of retaining all the autonomous power of the PSOE, which has nine presidencies, to try to stop the change of cycle that Alberto Núñez Feijóo encourages at the head of the PP.
With one certainty: "All presidents are strong." But also with notable risks, which prevent us from lowering our guard. On the one hand, and despite the fact that the socialist territories will cling to the investments of the new State budgets as an electoral asset, the Government accumulates the wear and tear of a succession of crises that have occurred – from the pandemic to the war and inflation – that the Sánchez himself assumes that they have tired the citizens. Some regional presidents of the PSOE, therefore, set their own profile and "play to distance themselves."
And, despite the fact that in Ferraz they assure that since July the PSOE brand is consolidating a "rebound", they do not hide their main difficulty. "Our big problem is demobilization, not the flight of votes that is punctual, in the face of the great mobilization of the PP," they admit.
Before the regional elections, more than the battle with the PP for the first position in each territory, they point out that "the possibility of making government alliances will be the key." They claim to have an advantage: "The PP only has Vox." Which is always “a catalyst from the left”.
The PSOE, on the other hand, has in most cases more pact options to retain its presidencies. But with a great threat: the possible collapse of the formations to his left, which may be essential to maintain the governments.
This is the case, they assume, of the Valencian Ximo Puig. "He is very strong and can add some more deputy," they point out in Ferraz. But the panorama "is very complicated" to face a third reissue of the Botànic after the imputation and resignation of the leader of Compromís, Mónica Oltra, and the poor electoral prospects of United We Can. "Ximo is fine, but everything will depend on the alliance joining", they predict.
The same thing happens to Francina Armengol in the Balearic Islands: "It depends on her allies not sinking", among which are United We Can and local groups from Mallorca, Menorca and Formentera. They attribute the same situation to María Chivite in Navarra, who governs with Geroa Bai, Podemos and Izquierda-Ezkerra, thanks to the abstention of EH Bildu. In her case, at least, the division in the space on the right benefits her to run for re-election.
In Ferraz they consider that the presidency of the Aragonese Javier Lambán "is not in danger", despite the fact that a quadripartite governs with external support: "He has many partners, and the PP only Vox." The re-election of the Asturian Adrián Barbón is also guaranteed, with the right immersed in "internal battles", and the Canarian Ángel Víctor Torres, they say, is already "very consolidated".
The Extremaduran Guillermo Fernández Vara and the Castilian-La Mancha Emiliano García-Page, on the other hand, can only achieve re-election if they tie up their current absolute majorities. In the first case, in Ferraz they do not see risks; but in the second they warn of a "more even" struggle with the PP.
The great danger, they warn, is in La Rioja, where Concha Andreu ended in 2019 with 24 years of PP hegemony. His re-election, they fear, could be up in the air.
