Sánchez avoids mentioning Vox at a rally in Castilla y León and focuses his attacks on Ayuso

To the list of electoral announcements made by Pedro Sánchez in the campaign, one more related to mental health has been added this Sunday. Next Tuesday's Council of Ministers will approve an item of 38.5 million euros for the care of this type of disorder that will be transferred to the autonomous communities.

As usual, the President of the Government has used a PSOE rally in Valladolid to advance a measure that will be approved by the Executive that shares with Unidas Podemos, which generally finds out about these issues at the same time as the rest of the population.. On this occasion, it is also an issue that the leader of Más País, Íñigo Errejón, has made his political banner.

What Sánchez did not allude to during his speech was Vox despite being in Castilla y León, the only region that has a coalition of PP and Santiago Abascal's party at the head of its regional Executive. The strategy of stirring up fear of the “ultra-right” did not work for the Socialists in the regional elections in Andalusia last year, so in this campaign the attacks are focused directly on the formation based on Calle Génova in Madrid.

And, specifically, the chief president has put the focus of the political rivalry directly on Isabel Díaz Ayuso this Sunday, who in turn has raised in a national key her race towards a third term at the head of the Madrid Government in which she aspires to the absolute majority. Once again the fight is settled between La Moncloa and Puerta del Sol

“Of the four communities that spend the least on health per inhabitant, three are governed by the PP and none by the PSOE. You can imagine which is the first: Madrid, the great paradox”, Sánchez pointed out before an audience delivered to applause. “It is the autonomous community with the highest per capita income, due to the capital effect it has, not for anything else, and the one with the worst level of health spending,” he stressed.

And then he added: “What is the consequence of all this? That 40% of the inhabitants of Madrid have private insurance. And who can afford private insurance? Because that is the big lie behind the cuts and the privatization of the PP wherever it governs, that it is much better that the money is in the pocket of citizens.

Sánchez's announcement on mental health is also framed in the context that Más Madrid, the brand with which Errejón's party presents itself in the Community and in the Madrid City Council, competes precisely with the PSOE for second place in both administrations. In the case of the City Council of the capital, it could even mean the difference between accessing or not the highest position in the Mayor's Office in the event that the parties of the left add more than those of the right and can unseat the popular José Luis Martínez-Almeida.

“We, where there is a problem, propose a solution, unlike the right, which, where there is a solution, presents a problem”, argued the President of the Government. “Where some see business, we see rights; where some see clients, we see patients (…). Public healthcare will be defended on May 28 with our vote,” he added.

Of the 38.5 million euros committed, 14.5 million will be allocated to improving equipment in health centers. This investment is in addition to the 100 million of the Mental Health Plan launched by the Government through which the suicide hotline -phone 024- was opened, which handles an average of 335 calls a day and has detected more than 8,500 calls with risk.

The mayor of Valladolid, Óscar Puente, who was received with a standing ovation similar to that of Sánchez by the 1,500 attendees at the city’s fairgrounds, and the secretary general of the PSOE in Castilla y León, Luis Tudanca, also took part in the event on Sunday. In addition to the city that is the seat of the regional government, the city councils of Burgos, León, Segovia and Soria are also led by party mayors.