The PSOE rejects the debate to three that Feijóo proposes and that Yolanda Díaz supports

The Popular Party has transferred this Tuesday to the PSOE that it accepts a face-to-face with Pedro Sánchez that could be expanded by including Yolanda Díaz in a three-way debate. This option, however, would border the leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal. An offer that the PSOE has quickly rejected by defining it as a “provocation”, but which has been accepted by Díaz.

The proposal has been transmitted by Esteban González Pons, vice-secretary of Institutional Action of the PP, to Santos Cerdán, secretary of Socialist Organization, through a letter in which he proposes, PP sources explain, to debate in a face-to-face “with the member of the government coalition determined by the PSOE and the brand that inherits the representation in the Executive that the socialists agreed with Podemos at the time”.

In other words, the PP urges the government alliance to agree and choose a representative for the debate with Feijóo, who in the PP understand that it would be either Pedro Sánchez, or Yolanda Díaz, second vice president and leader of the new left-wing space Sumar. Díaz should “delegate” his representation to Sánchez for the celebration of a “two-way” debate between the opposition leader and the Prime Minister.

In the event that an agreement is not reached within the Executive, the PP offers to replace the face-to-face with a “three-way debate”, with the presence of both leaders and the leader of the opposition. This scenario would leave out Santiago Abascal, president of Vox, the third party in the last general elections.

Abascal would be included in the other debate in which the PP is willing to participate in this campaign “with the rest of the political forces”, including those with which the PSOE and Unidas Podemos have achieved the parliamentary majority in which they have supported the legislature, that is, in EH Bildu, ERC and the PNV.

“Given the prominence that these three political forces have held throughout the legislature, excluding them now would be to deceive citizens about what they actually vote for.. There are seven parts that this other debate must have if it is to be plural, representative and guide what may happen in the next parliament”, Pons writes to Cerdán about the presence of these formations.

Ferraz: Feijóo looks for “pretexts”

The proposal has been flatly rejected from the socialist ranks after a few minutes under the argument that the words of the PP represent a “provocation” that goes beyond the powers of the parties when deciding on the debates.

“It is not the PP who determines the debates, it is the convening communication groups,” socialist sources explain in this regard. “And the groups have requested face-to-face debates between Sánchez and Feijóo and debates with four, with the four national formations”, that is, PSOE, PP, Vox and Sumar. The PSOE has accepted all these debates, which is why in Ferraz they consider that Feijóo is looking for “pretexts” to avoid debating with Sánchez.

From Sumar, however, it is seen with good eyes to include Yolanda Díaz in the debates between the main political leaders. “A three-way debate is more like today's Spain than the old bipartisanship,” they say in Sumar, where they support leaving Santiago Abascal aside for this debate.