That the city of Valencia is key has been said over and over again. The capital (which concentrates 16% of the autonomous vote) will mark the future of the Generalitat and together with Barcelona and Seville will detail who wins and loses the municipal elections at the state level. Everything indicates that the cap i casal is a struggle between the current mayor, Joan Ribó, and the PP candidate, María José Catalá. All the surveys -except the CIS- give the popular one ahead. There are more doubts as to whether or not he will be able to govern since there are not a few polls that allow the sum of Compromís and PSPV to repeat the absolute majority of 17 councilors.
However, during the campaign, the figure of the vice mayor and socialist candidate, Sandra Gómez, has emerged. Being the third in discord, she had the risk of being made invisible, but as the days went by, hers has been gaining prominence. The leader has had the absolute support of her party during the campaign -with frequent visits by ministers and the presence of the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, on several occasions-, because in Ferraz they know the importance of a good result in the capital of the Turia.
The PSOE has a lot at stake, but more so the PSPV and achieving a high percentage in Valencia would help Ximo Puig to revalidate the Generalitat.
With little to lose and the need to make herself heard, Gómez has risked more than Catalá and Ribó in the debates and although in the first one on Cadena Ser she was somewhat more impulsive, in the one held last Wednesday on TVE, with the same a forceful and more serene message, put both the PP candidate and Vox on the ropes.
Gómez has known how to lower her critical tone with her partner Joan Ribó -without giving up asking the electorate that she believes that "she can better lead the future"- and has directed that energy to position Catalá as the "councilor of the PP of the pufos" and to question the Vox candidate for his management of the VIU. He has even reminded the popular candidate of her passage through Torrent.
Also in the proposals it has managed to gain prominence with approaches such as the moratorium for tourist apartments or the proposal to advance the closing hours of shops for the sake of family reconciliation.
In addition, Gómez tries to enhance her feminist and feminine profile, aware that, as the CIS says, the socialist aspirant is more valued and has more support among women than among men. According to some internal polls, the PP and PSPV could be fighting over a large pool of undecided women.
In the PSPV they are optimistic. Their tracking points out that in recent days the Socialists have risen clearing themselves of Compromís. The Socialists explain that this growth is not so much due to a prick of the PP but rather due to the later mobilization of left-wing voters. For this reason, they believe that the campaign is being positive. It cannot be ignored that this tracking or continuous poll is on the part of and the right is convinced that it will be able to govern in Valencia. As it is, nothing is written.
And it is that in this case the electoral campaign can be decisive. In the survey carried out by the institute directed by José Félix Tezanos, it was detailed that in the municipal elections of Valencia that 40% decide to vote once the electoral campaign has begun. In fact, compared to the answers "they always vote for the same party" (12.9%) or "they usually vote for the same party" (28.4%), there were 55.5% willing to vote for one party or another or not vote "according to what is most convincing at that moment".
