Isabel Díaz Ayuso's brutal offensive against Pedro Sánchez is decided today at the polls. It is the essence of an electoral campaign that began with the President of the Government in the White House and ended on Friday night with the Secretary General of the PSOE asking Socialist voters not to be discouraged by accusations of fraud .
When Alberto Núñez Feijóo criticized the PSOE's pacts with Bildu, Ayuso asked for the illegalization 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 friendly lines of contact. When Feijóo slowed down a little, Ayuso closed the campaign in Madrid with a direct and brutal accusation against the Prime Minister of cronyism and called into question the cleanliness of the next general elections. Donald Trump in vein.
For the right-wing people, the central axis of the campaign has been "Ayuso or Sánchez". The media armada of conservative Madrid vibrates with her. José María Aznar has gone down to the battlefield with Ayuso's messages and has generated 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 announced that Sánchez, with the support of separatists and communists, will carry out a "general release" of ETA prisoners. Zapatero replied that Aznar lives on lies: "He has been like this for almost 20 years, since he deceived all of us Spaniards with the attack in March 2004, and he does not get out of the deception and the shamelessness". Felipe González's sepulchral silence. Mariano Rajoy's stylistic incursions: "Not even the person with the most humor in the world can withstand four more years of a Frankenstein Government".
Sánchez's campaign began with a match with the president of the United States, Joe Biden, in Washington - a start that the old standards would consider unstoppable - and ended with an allegation against electoral demobilization, with a certain background of distress Trigger: the serious case of buying votes by mail detected in Melilla, the responsibility of which would fall on Coalició por Melilla, the main recipient of the Muslim vote in the city, followed by half a dozen cases in small municipalities governed by the Socialists. Finally, the case of the councilor of Maracena (Granada) kidnapped for a planning scam. The number two of the Andalusian PSOE is investigated on this issue. A terrible end to the campaign for the Socialists. 48 hours of uninterrupted media storm.
The PP campaign began with a Venezuelan televangelist alongside Feijóo and has ended with Isabel Díaz Ayuso accusing the president of the Spanish Government of being a criminal.
The socialist campaign started with the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaño, knocked down by the incident of May 2 and has ended with Bolaño still knocked down. This episode strengthened Díaz Ayuso in front of the right-wing people. She is its undisputed leader and the European press already recognizes it.
The PSOE proposed an aerial campaign. Sánchez flew over Spain with the blessing of the president of the United States, promised investments and social bonuses, every day in a different square, without entering the substance of the local debates, without focusing on the candidates. Faced with aerial social democracy, the PP deployed the surface-to-air missiles devised by the previous president of the United States. Emotional fire to delegitimize the opponent, without entering into concrete and pragmatic discussions.
The PP has alternated between the Trump manual and Mao's Red Book: "You must not punch with two fists in two different directions at the same time, you must punch with one fist in only one direction each time". Centuries ago, Sunzi put it another way: “Attack him where he is not ready; it advances where you least expect it. When the thunder breaks out, 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 throughout the legislature. Surprisingly, the mahogany PSOE apparatus was not ready. The focus on ETA puzzled him. The great weakness of the PSOE in Madrid and the growing fragility in Andalucia have been highlighted once again, while the left's defenses were working in the Valencian Community.
The other left has paid the price for the disunity of the Magariños pavilion. Podemos deployed a pugnacious urban propaganda guerrilla, while Yolanda Díaz economized efforts, focused on Barcelona and finally Valencia.
The PP has commanded the campaign and may have made a serious mistake at the last minute with the announcement of a hellish battle to delegitimize the democratic process. There may be a reaction. There may be a large defection. We'll find out tonight.
