The Madrid left intensifies its dispute in the face of electoral urgency: from consolidating the 'sorpasso' to the fear of disappearance
After a long career of months, the final stretch of the campaign looms and nobody wants to back down. It's time to sprint, drain energy and harden the messages to win any millimeter to the rivals. This is how the left faces the last week in Madrid, where the fragmentation of the space into three candidacies (Más Madrid, PSOE and Podemos-IU) is causing the dispute between them to intensify in search of the mobilization of voters and to win in their particular competition.
Más Madrid tries to consolidate the sorpasso that it gave to the PSOE in the last Madrid elections and wants to confirm itself as the main alternative to the right in Madrid, even taking over the City Council of the capital. While the socialists seek to recover primacy in space so as not to be diluted in such relevant autonomy and be diminished for the general elections. We can fight for his part against the danger of his institutional disappearance and thus avoid a checkmate in his future negotiation with Yolanda Díaz.
The fight over the next five days is going to be fierce, as this past weekend has shown.. Más Madrid made a show of force on Saturday by organizing the most massive act of the left so far this campaign in the emblematic Plaza Mayor. In a meeting that had a lot of discursive and emotional power, he called to become the “common house” of progressive people since it is the “only alternative” to Ayuso's PP.
This final stretch Mónica García, Rita Maestre and Íñigo Errejón will multiply to consolidate the message that they are the leaders of the left, as well as to underpin the real options that Maestre has to lead an alternative majority to govern the City Council of the capital. It is in the city where the expectations of Más Madrid are on the rise, since the vast majority of the polls indicate that there is a party and that everything will be played in a handful of votes. That illusion contrasts with the jug of cold water that the polls also throw when talking about the Community of Madrid and the majority that PP and Vox have.
In a campaign very close to Madrid and avoiding national debates, Más Madrid also steps on the accelerator with an appeal to the useful vote on the left, although without mentioning that concept. It does so by contrasting with the others as the main and most solvent “alternative” to the PP. “There are some who are satisfied with the second course, we do not come to be the opposition,” Rita Maestre emphasized on Saturday. “Either More Madrid or the Popular Party, there are no more alternatives in Madrid,” Errejón said.. Mónica García was even more direct: “We want to be the common home of all Madrid progressives, whatever color they feel.”
The PSOE does not lower its arms and also seeks the final push. This Thursday Pedro Sánchez will come to play strong, who until now has only had one campaign rally in Alcalá de Henares and who reserved the impact for the end.
Likewise, in these coming days a good number of government ministers will parade through the Community of Madrid to give a boost to the socialist mayors of the south of the region, the regional candidate, Juan Lobato, and the candidate in the city, Reyes Maroto. Today, for example, María Jesús Montero or Luis Planas come on stage. That presence will increase these days.
In this duel on the left, precisely yesterday Sánchez wanted to dispute one of the great frameworks that Más Madrid leads: mental health. A topic that Errejón promoted from Congress and which has gone from being an invisible topic to a regular topic today at rallies. The President of the Government announced yesterday that tomorrow'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.
Ione Belarra and Alejandra Jacinto, in a gesture of complicity. EFE
The third in contention, the candidacy of Podemos-IU, does the rest because, unlike the other two, its survival is at risk. Their struggle is to reach the minimum of 5% of the votes to achieve representation.. Otherwise, the purple ones would disappear from the place where they were born in 2014. It would be a very hard blow that could also have consequences in the confluence negotiations with Yolanda Díaz regarding the role she would have in Sumar.
Threatened by this situation, Podemos has opted for a provocative strategy with which to be noticed in any way and whose greatest exponent is the harassment undertaken against Ayuso's brother. Likewise, he has taken out his elbow against his rivals in the space on the left. Yesterday Ione Belarra opened fire on Más Madrid for being a “cute left” that is not “brave” and does not dare to “give up the fights”. Of the Madrid force and the PSOE, he said that their legs will shake when it comes to applying the Housing Law to its final consequences.
The leaders of Podemos and IU will make a significant effort in the Community throughout this week. In the case of the purple ones, they will end the campaign with up to seven acts with their top leaders. They have the next one tomorrow, location still to be confirmed, and the highlight will be on Friday, where Belarra, Irene Montero will give the final arreón to the candidates Alejandra Jacinto and Roberto Sotomayor.