First debate Moreno sells management and Olona tries to polarize in the first Andalusian debate of 19-J
19-J The thirteen pearls of the first Andalusian electoral debate: Of balls, shrimp and 'Frankenstein' Vs 'The exorcist'
Juanma Moreno managed this Monday to overcome the harassment of Vox in the second televised debate of the campaign, which was much more lively, with more confrontation and also with more acrimony and cross accusations between the six candidates for the Presidency of the Junta de Andalucía (the presented to the elections on June 19 by political formations with parliamentary representation).
Moreno, Juan Marín (Ciudadanos), Macarena Olona (Vox), Juan Espadas (PSOE), Inma Nieto (Por Andalucía) and Teresa Rodríguez (Adelante Andalucía) faced each other again in a televised debate, this time on Canal Sur, Andalusian public television that, at times, became the protagonist due to the alleged threats of closures and cuts in the case of an eventual government pact between the PP and Vox, a party that has promised to enter public companies "with a chainsaw" .
The president of the Board and candidate for re-election by the PP became the object of the main criticism due to the logical distribution of roles.
But, if in the first debate he managed to get out of the contest almost without scratches, on this occasion, his opponents were much more incisive and accurate in the exposition with data and arguments of the main shortcomings of the legislature, the first with a non-socialist government .
That strategy of all against Moreno managed, on the other hand, for the popular candidate to appear, before as president of the Junta subject to a control session of the opposition than as one of the candidates for the Presidency of the Junta de Andalucía.
And so Moreno emphasized again and again to make it clear that, as the polls highlight, Andalusians -and among them his adversaries- already see him as the next Andalusian president.
Moreno only managed to abstract himself from the confrontations when Macarena Olona (Vox) introduced some of the usual cultural battles of his party, such as his rejection of sex education in schools or his references to the "criminalization" of men and "collectivization" of homosexuals.
Then, Olona monopolized the attention and became the target of the ironies and the forcefulness of the rest of the candidates.
In the first round, that is, in the debate held on Monday, June 6 on Spanish Television, Moreno chose not to take risks and refused to respond to direct questions, both those that came to him from Vox and those that were thrown at him by the left.
This second debate, on Canal Sur, had been considered, therefore, as a second round in which to fine-tune the strategies based on the taste of each candidate's mouth that the first round had left a week ago.
In general terms, the Popular Party had been satisfied with the role played by Moreno in the first assault, given that he left the match without any serious scratches.
For the left, therefore, the meeting left a bitter taste as its difficulties in bringing Moreno to the ground of giving explanations for his management and for the unresolved problems in the autonomous community, which continues to be the one that most unemployment has from Spain.
Last night's debate, led by journalists Blanca Rodríguez and Fernando García, ran with more agility and intensity;
and, this time yes, Moreno was forced to get into some puddles and answer about a hypothetical pact with Vox in his second term.
Even so, he endured the harassment of Vox and ended up calling the hypothesis of a government with Olona as president and himself as vice president as "delirium".
The PP candidate lamented Olona's insistence on entering an autonomous government "in which he does not believe."
And Olona warned him that the PP will not be able to count on "a single abstention" if Vox is not within that government.
Moreno did not rule out that pact, as his interlocutors on the left demanded, but the PP candidate "opted for an alliance with the Andalusians, in a commitment and in a pact where he can interpret the diversity and plurality of this land."
During the meeting, Juan Espadas (PSOE) achieved a little more notoriety and success in his questions to the current president who, in the first debate, vehemently defended Pedro Sánchez's policies and asked the PP and Ciudadanos to recognize that the investments made have been made possible by funds transferred from the central government.
That defense served Moreno to address him as "Sánchez's delegate in Andalusia."
And he insisted on it so much that Swords ended up asking him for mercy.
But Swords was also misplaced at times when the Vox candidate reminded him of the money from the corruption of the ERE.
The debate went on addressing the obligatory topics, such as employment, health waiting lists, corruption or regional financing, but introducing other less common ones, such as child masturbation in textbooks.
Olona did it by taking out of the lectern a textbook intended, supposedly, for 10-year-old children and where masturbation is discussed, to reproach Moreno for allowing sexual education at an early age in schools.
Moreno limited himself to dismissing the argument because, in the first debate, Olona used another manual that was out of date.
"You bring me expired merchandise," he told his interlocutor and refused to pick up the book that she insistently offered him.
But Teresa Rodríguez immediately came to the rescue to defend the sexual education of children, because that is how it is regulated by law, and because it serves, for example, to prevent situations of harassment, she pointed out.
And, after quoting Woody Allen, she lamented that Vox prefers the old education of religious centers "where they told you that if you masturbated you would go blind."
However, both the first debate and this one on Canal Sur did serve to give visibility to the leaders of a highly fragmented left, which has forged alliances and generated new electoral brands practically unknown to the public.
It should be remembered that the leaders of the left, with the exception of Teresa Rodríguez, started this campaign with a low level of knowledge among voters, including Juan Espadas, despite the fact that he has been mayor of Seville for seven years since Pedro Sánchez has placed the entire Council of Ministers at your disposal.
Swords finally addressed the Andalusians "who stayed at home" in 2018, specifically the 400,000 voters who led the PSOE to its worst results in Andalusian elections.
Beyond the arguments, the debates have served above all to make it known that Juan Marín and Ciudadanos are still politically alive, that Vox is not going to give away its support to the Popular Party, and so that the Andalusians distinguish between the two candidacies to the left of the PSOE.
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