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Castilla-La Mancha is not just any territory for Alberto Núñez Feijóo on the route to reach La Moncloa. The popular seek to maintain on May 28 the control of their autonomies and dye blue all those in which the PSOE now governs as a previous step to the general elections at the end of the year. And dethroning Emiliano García-Page, they reflect in Genoa, can be a shock in the socialist ranks that ends up decanting the balance at the national level and definitively strengthening the Popular Party.

"If the PP wins in Castilla-La Mancha, Feijóo will win in the generals," synthesize popular sources in this region, which assume that Paco Núñez will be the most voted candidate and that he will have enough slack to govern. However, the polls predict that, at least, Vox will achieve a representation of between one and three seats in the Cortes, which could give those of Santiago Abascal the key to governability in Castilla-La Mancha.

But the PP not only seeks victory over socialism in this community, but will try to scratch votes to its left and right. As this newspaper has learned, the party will exploit the presence of former Prime Ministers José María Aznar and Mariano Rajoy during the campaign in the region to attract all kinds of profiles during the key fifteen days of the campaign. To do this, he will focus the presence of Aznar in Cuenca, bastion of Vox, while Rajoy, with a more moderate profile, will claim the vote for the PP in Ciudad Real, where Ciudadanos maintains the mayor's office. The strong territorial fall of the oranges and the battle for the vote with Vox will mark the expectations of the PP in the final stretch of the race to the polls.

They will not be the only acts that both former heads of the Executive will carry out. As they express from the heart of the formation, Aznar and Rajoy will participate as an electoral "caravan", with a special team for them, and will tour various points and localities of Castilla-La Mancha. All in order to achieve the great challenge of returning to govern in a historically socialist region and that only in a legislature – between 2011 and 2015, with María Dolores de Cospedal at the controls of the Junta – has been managed by the right.

To this we must add that Feijóo will visit Castilla-La Mancha, at least, on a couple of occasions throughout the campaign to lead two acts. The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, in addition, will only hold an event outside her territory during the two weeks of campaigning. It will be in Castilla-La Mancha as well. Total deployment of the popular.

Clear commitment

The commitment of the leader of the opposition for this region, then, is absolute, as evidenced by the act held this Sunday in Guadalajara, where the president of the formation launched the framework program of the PP in the face of the regional and general elections of exactly within two months.

"Nobody has worked like him," Alberto Núñez Feijóo praised yesterday about Paco Núñez and his strategy for the polls. After presenting the program this weekend in Guadalajara, the popular leader accompanied and introduced the candidate in Castilla-La Mancha on Monday at a New Economy Forum breakfast in Madrid, where he warned that the victory of the PP in Castilla-La Mancha will be "the prelude" to a national triumph in December. "My immersion in Castilla-La Mancha proves that it is a prosperous land, that it has pioneering companies in the agri-food field, and that I am convinced that they have much more capacity," he said about the region.

Now, the popular president continues the path opened a month ago, when in Valencia, in the Intermunicipal held by the PP, Feijóo achieved the photo of unity with Aznar and Rajoy as a symbol of "continuity" of his legacy. Both former presidents of the Government also participated just over a year ago in the electoral campaign in Castilla y León, where they wrapped Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, who today leads the only regional government formed by the coalition between the PP and Vox.

Precisely last Friday Santiago Abascal praised the government action of Mañueco, defined him as "an example" and predicted that the PP would end up abandoning and repudiating him for having been "the ugly duckling" that agreed with Vox. A comment that is answered by Genoa with the argument that each territory has autonomy to decide its regional pacts.

In this sense, and as this newspaper has been reporting in recent weeks, those of Santiago Abascal are with serious options not only to appear in the parliament of Castilla-La Mancha next May, but to be part of a right-wing government in this territory. The weight of the rural vote, the various controversies unleashed by Minister Alberto Garzón that affect the livestock sector and the management of Vox in Castilla y León are the main assets of the party in this autonomy.

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  • PP
  • Castile-La Mancha
  • Mariano Rajoy
  • Alberto Núñez Feijóo
  • María Dolores de Cospedal
  • Jose Maria Aznar
  • Emiliano Garcia-Page
  • Isabel Diaz Ayuso