In the absence of five days for the 28-M, Pedro Sánchez and Alberto Núñez Feijóo coincided this Tuesday in two rallies in Extremadura, a traditionally socialist fiefdom with the exception of a single legislature, that of 2011-2015, where José Antonio Monago (PP) governed. Both national leaders also did so at the same time, in the afternoon and at 19:00 p.m. One in Badajoz, the socialist, and the other, the popular leader, in Cáceres.

Simple coincidence? In politics, nothing is a coincidence. It is true that the President of the Government postponed his first campaign visit to Extremadura that was scheduled for last Friday due to the serious fire that Las Hurdes and Sierra de Gata have suffered these days. And he moved it to Tuesday, just when Feijóo also did it, just 11 days after having also chosen Extremadura, in this case Badajoz, for the first campaign act, the pasting of posters.

What's behind this interest? The main thing is that Guillermo Fernández Vara would win elections in number of votes but would lose the absolute majority next Sunday and would need Unidas Podemos if this party maintains its current position (four deputies). That would allow the governability of the left bloc in the face of the advance in recent months on the other side of the board.

Feijóo, in Cáceres with the candidates of the PP María Guardiola and Rafael Mateos.V. RosoEFE

According to most published polls, including those of the CIS (it gives 28-29 deputies to the PSOE and 24-25 to the PP), the center-right bloc is given serious options (it would be one or two deputies in the sum) before the advance of María Guardiola, the new leader of the PP in this region and the entry for the first time in the Assembly of Vox. The absolute majority is at 33 seats.

So the PP believes it has a historic opportunity as it had in 2011. And so Feijóo expressed it: "I realized when I came to the Monago rallies that we were going to govern Extremadura and the last times I have come I bought that you are going to have a woman for the first time at the head of the Junta – in reference to María Guardiola – and that we are going to do double in Badajoz and Cáceres", Forecast.

The national president of the popular asked for the vote in favor of "normality because we are not perfect but we are infinitely superior to the government we have, to sanchismo, which in these five years has only caused division and confrontation among Spaniards." For Extremadura, he also promised that his Minister of Transport will visit this region every three months when he governs to "give accounts" of the work to finish the route of the AVE.

In Badajoz, and also saving the rain, Pedro Sánchez stressed that his government has had "many difficulties". In fact, the socialist leader baptized his presidency as "the legislature of the pandemic and war", so he evoked what "we could do with the wind in favor and not against". And he took heart in that it has been the legislature "of employment and rights" despite the "apocalypse that the right always announces." And he gave as examples the rise of the SMI "by 47%", the labor reform the increase in 2,520 million euros of scholarships for young people or the increase of ICU beds in Health or health professionals with respect to the governments of Mariano Rajoy.

"We will never say that this is a miracle, nor that Spain is doing well because there are many problems to solve," giving as an example even the train of Extremadura, which promised to improve it in the coming years. "We govern Spain better and we govern the economy better because we do not think about the elite, about those at the top, and we do it with social peace." To do this, he gave as an example the more than 20 million affiliated to Social Security.

MAYORS

The battle in Extremadura is not only in the presidency of the Junta de Extremadura. The two big parties are also playing the town halls of the two main cities in the region, so there is a lot at stake, and everything indicates that both will also be decided by a handful of votes. In Badajoz has governed in this legislature a coalition formed by PP, Citizens and Vox (exchanging the first two formations the mayors in the middle of the legislature) and precisely the current councilor, Ignacio Gragera, who was the 'orange' candidate four years ago, now it is of the 'popular'. And in Cáceres, just the opposite happened. Ciudadanos, with the addition of Podemos, then gave the mayor's office to Luis Salaya, socialist candidate, but now all the polls predict a victory of the 'popular' Rafael Mateos. So the excitement in Extremadura on election night is assured. Hence, both Feijóo and Sánchez threw the rest on Tuesday. The stakes are high.

  • Autonomous Elections
  • Municipal Elections
  • Extremadura
  • Politics

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