• 23-J Abascal pressures Feijóo to negotiate in electoral period while the PP tries to force governments without Vox
  • Politics Sánchez wants to reduce the 23-J to a face to face with Feijóo, proposes six debates and the PP rejects it: "It is one more eccentricity"

While La Moncloa reduces the 23-J to a continuous face to face with Alberto Núñez Feijóo and the Popular Party faces the generals as a plebiscite on the continuity of Pedro Sánchez, Santiago Abascal recovers presence to boost Vox and break the clamp that bipartisanship threatens to assemble. Its formation faces seven decisive weeks to consolidate itself as a crucial piece to "build the alternative" at the national level after the 28-M has made Vox inescapable for the PP in a good part of the territories where the popular have been the most voted.

To do this, the president of Vox has multiplied his appearances in recent dates and plans to continue doing so in the coming weeks. All at a decisive moment for Vox, which advocates sealing as soon as possible the negotiations for the formation of regional pacts that guarantee the governability of the right, and seeks to maintain at the national level the momentum and confidence received on 28-M. In front of him, a Feijóo who, in addition to absorbing Ciudadanos and cutting a serious percentage of voters to his left, also subtracts votes from Vox.

"The spokesperson is me"

Given the certainty that both the PSOE and the PP will seek to play the campaign in a bipartisan key, as a tandem, Vox is committed to gaining the maximum possible focus through its president. "The spokesman, as you can see, at the moment is me," Abascal said ironically yesterday at a press conference. In part he is right because since the imposing result of Vox in the municipal and regional elections he has been the one who has monopolized the most presence: in less than ten days he has appeared twice before the press, in addition to his speech on election night from the headquarters of Bamboo.

He has also multiplied his messages through social networks and on Friday, by surprise, ended the week with a meeting with the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, European partner of Vox. A meeting with its corresponding photograph that was not devised by chance a few days after crossing the electoral finish line as the party that grows the most and that holds the key to governability for the right in a good part of the territories.

The high presence of Abascal contrasts with what has been seen in recent times, when the leader of Vox developed a lower and more discreet profile, barely granted interviews and concentrated his appearances in Congress. However, the dissolution of the Cortes forces all parties to restructure their communication strategies, and Vox has chosen to give more weight to its president over other regular members in the appearances, such as Jorge Buxadé, Iván Espinosa de los Monteros or Ignacio Garriga. However, Vox is already working at full speed in the design of the 23-J campaign and everything seems to indicate that the organic spokesperson of the formation will fall back on one of them, as usually happens on Mondays, when Buxadé, vice president of Political Action of the party, responds to the press.

Less than two months

The moment in which Abascal recovers focus is decisive for Vox. The less than two months remaining until the passage through the national ballot box will be frantic: the campaign – which is already in its preliminary phase with the results of 28-M still burning – will be mixed with the complex phase of negotiations for the formation of regional governments. Some contacts that the PP is trying to "postpone", think in Vox, but that in the eyes of Abascal, due to the "urgency" demanded by citizens, should come to fruition before July 23. "The position of the PP is not one and clear throughout Spain," considers the leader of Vox, in contrast to the centralization that Bamboo has adopted as a strategy for the negotiations.

Abascal's message, before the press, on social networks or from Budapest, does not vary: Vox's position is fixed, unanimous and centralized about how to manage the period of negotiations with the PP, which is solely responsible for the fact that the dialogue process to seal territorial pacts has not yet been opened. "We are simply waiting," says the president of Vox, who says he has "patience" and the "outstretched hand" even in those places where the popular have already specified that they do not seek the support of Vox or that they have even already found other ways to carry out their investiture.

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  • Santiago Abascal Conde
  • General Elections

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