Natalia Puga Pontevedra
Alvaro Carvajal Madrid
Vicente Coll
Pontevedra
Madrid
Updated Thursday, February 1, 2024-21:14
Galicia Elections The first big test to gauge the strength of the blocks that fight on the political board
18-F Yolanda Díaz and her ministers disembark in Galicia to save Sumar
The BNG, like the entire spectrum of the left, faces the campaign convinced of the option of political change of the Xunta de Galicia, repeating a bipartite PSOE-BNG like the one that won against
Manuel Fraga
in 2005 . After four absolute majorities for
Alberto Núñez Feijóo
's PP , the polls, for the first time, leave a gap for alternation, on this occasion, with the nationalists at the forefront. With this premise they start the campaign, with very high expectations and trusting everything to the charisma of their candidate,
Ana Pontón
.
Certainly, only the CIS survey directly opens the door to a left-wing government, while the rest limit themselves to predicting a tight majority for the PP. But the BNG insists that "there is a party" and that, if the electorate is mobilized, they will come out on top. His campaign director,
Rubén Cela
, sees these elections as "the most open in recent decades", certain that "today there are many more Galicians who prefer political change than the continuity of the PP." With the slogans “Now” and “The Galicia you want”, they need to concentrate the vote on their initials. "Not a single vote for change can stay at home," Cela asked, and Pontón opened the race towards 18-F as "the candidate of all the people who want change, no matter who they voted for first."
The party entrusts all its success to the candidate, with a personalist campaign designed to confirm the sustained growth since her arrival in 2016. She took a BNG on the brink of ruin, without representation in Madrid and with polls that put its 7 regional deputies in danger, and turned it into the second force in Galicia (19 seats, far from the 42 of the PP, but 5 more than the PSOE and suddenly picking up the 13 that the tides lost with Podemos). The formula worked and they cling to the best-rated leader, according to the CIS: 5.77, followed by
Alfonso Rueda
(PP, 5.39) and
Xosé Ramón Gómez Besteiro
(PSOE, 4.84).
One of the keys to Pontón's appreciation is his proximity, which he will delve into by opening the campaign in his family home in Chorente (Sarria, Lugo), but also an image of youth and modernity that he has been building for years, along with the moderate forms that They soften the once surly Galician nationalism. Firm convictions, but committed to dialogue.
His disposition has also allowed him
to pacify his
political
spectrum with a reconciliation with the historic nationalist leader and co
-
founder
of
the
BNG
the tides and Podemos. After the breakup attempt failed, one of the coups of the pre-campaign was an agreement with Anova that threatens Sumar's strength in the community.
In recent years he has made an effort to broaden the nationalist electorate, moving away from the closedness that previous leaders suffered from. "There are many ways to feel Galician and they are all necessary to build the great Galicia that we want," he insisted at the start of the campaign. A commitment that led her to approach sectors that could seem more conservative, such as business. "The BNG has made an effort to reset itself and get closer to the economic reality of the country," its candidate for Pontevedra,
Luís Bará,
recently acknowledged . They present themselves as a party prepared to govern and need to go beyond their classic niche of voters.
EXAM FOR YOLANDA DÍAZ
These are not comfortable elections for Sumar. Yolanda Díaz examines herself. Sumar faces regional elections for the first time and, with this, the territorial reach of this new political force is tested. If this were not enough in itself, this test is carried out in the homeland of its leader, which surrounds the elections on the 18th in more than obvious symbolism.
The political space that Sumar inherits in Galicia suffered a total disaster in the 2020 elections, when the
Galicia en Común
candidacy was left out of Parliament. Four years earlier it had made a splash with the
En Marea
brand , which came second in votes (19%) and won 14 seats.
Marta Lois, candidate of Sumar.EFE
That virtuous spiral, in which the tides governed some of the main Galician cities, decomposed like a sugar and a large part of the left-wing vote that it was able to concentrate has gone to the BNG. That is the main threat facing Sumar and his candidate,
Marta Lois
, since the polls warn that the transfer of votes remains open.
However, Sumar has in its favor the leadership of Díaz, who is well known in Galicia, and the result of the general elections, when the fuchsia brand won 11% of the vote, winning two seats. That is why the driving idea with which this campaign is going to be crushed is that if we vote like in the month of July, Sumar can be decisive in bringing about a left-wing change in the Xunta with an alliance with the BNG and the socialists.
Sumar and Lois will concentrate their efforts in the provinces of La Coruña and Pontevedra, where the large Galician cities are located. It is that urban, young and female vote that is considered key to obtaining at least one seat. Although in a low voice one dreams that there could be two people from A Coruña and one from Pontevedra.
Podemos got out of the coalition with Sumar and will go alone to 18-F with no options to leave, but with the capacity to torpedo Díaz's aspirations.
VOX SPIDER VOTES IN ABSTENTION
For its part, Vox arrives at the Galician campaign with the lightness of someone who has nothing to lose but the pressure of someone who has everything pending.
Santiago Abascal
defines as a "thorn in the side" the weakness of Vox in Galicia, the only region where it has not entered parliament, and seeks to surprise with the polls against it, an unknown candidate and the electoral failure of 2020 - a 2, 05% and less than 27,000 votes- still rumbling. To do this, Vox proposes a national campaign and with Abascal as a figure in an autonomy without leaders or structure.
Santiago Abascal, with the Vox candidate for the Presidency of the Xunta, Álvaro Díaz-Mella.EFE
Vox has changed its strategy a couple of times: first it established itself as a true "useful vote" by ensuring that, according to its polls, if Vox gains a seat in Pontevedra and A Coruña it will be at the expense of nationalism and not at the expense of the PP, as it defends Genoa. This week Abascal went on to address the 51% of abstentionists in 2020 to activate potential voters who opt for Vox at the national level but do not go to vote in the region.
Abascal's people cling to this dual vote: despite receiving 26,797 votes in the 2020 regional elections, in the national elections on June 23 Vox received three times as much support, 77,014 votes. This 4.79% registered in the general elections is much closer to the electoral barrier, located at 5%, than what was obtained in 2020.