Vox and Bildu – and to a lesser extent, Esquerra Republicana – were the third passengers in the seventh face-to-face in the history of television, which starred Pedro Sánchez and Alberto Núñez Feijóo last night.
A tense debate, in which the leader of the Popular Party managed to place his story while Sánchez had more difficulty defending his position.
The socialist leader reproached him again and again, to the point of exhaustion, the pacts of the Popular Party with the ultra-nationalist party Vox in the municipal and regional governments, in which, as he said, "rights are being exchanged for armchairs".
Feijóo tried to detach himself from this slab by contrasting, on the one hand, the agreements that the PSOE has reached throughout the legislature with Bildu and also with Esquerra Republicana - especially in relation to pardons.
Feijóo put on the table an agreement according to which he undertakes to abstain to facilitate the investiture of Sánchez if he is the most voted, and demanded that Pedro Sánchez undertake to do the same if he wins. The President of the Government did not accept the initiative of the popular leader, but he did not say a resounding no either.
The first block of the debate focused on the economy and the diagnosis made by the two contenders could not be more disparate. For Sánchez, the Spanish economy has managed to escape the effects of the war in Ukraine, it has created two million jobs, it has reduced inflation... On the contrary, Feijóo has given a catastrophic description of the economy : Sánchez has barely created employment, has shot up the debt to 200 million a day, and is at the tail end of the growth of the European economy. Feijóo, aware that all the polls indicate that the perception of the general economic situation is not good, invested himself as the representative of all Spaniards and Sánchez did not manage to turn it around with the good data - which he has - from his Government .
From the first minute on this blog it was clear that neither would make the slightest concession. A vehement Feijóo spoke more than Sánchez.
The second blog dedicated to equality was not more placid. Quite the opposite. At this point Feijóo reproached him that there have been convicts for violence or pederasty released as a result of the law of the only yes is yes, which, Feijóo said, "will haunt him for the rest of his life". Sánchez has responded with the alliances between the PP and Vox and the lack of commitment in the policy against gender violence.
The third block was about pacts, but in reality, Feijóo had already set the framework for the conversation. Here they brought together the agreements with Bildu with which Feijóo even evoked the killers of the PP militant Miguel Ángel Blanco. Sánchez tried to defend himself by arguing that he has approved laws with the Basque formation, but he has never given access to the institutions to a party like Vox, which he has placed outside the Constitution, as the PP has done in communities and town halls
At this point in the face-to-face it was already clear that Feijóo had left. Sánchez tried to recover in the last blog when Feijóo suggested that Sánchez's policy with Morocco is the result of blackmail by the authorities of that country. "What information does Morocco have on your cell phone?" asked Feijóo. Here, the president assured that he is a "free, autonomous and clean" politician. A claim that turned out to be a bit laconic.
Once the debate was over, the two leaders shook hands and each left with their team. Both said, outside the set, that it had gone well, one with more enthusiasm than the other.
