The elections are decided in 48 hours in Valencia: Sánchez and Feijóo disembark in search of "the symbolic victory of 28-M"
The 28-M election campaign reaches its halfway point. And it does so with the spotlight shining even more on Valencia, a fiefdom on everyone’s lips. Pedro Sánchez, this Saturday, and Alberto Núñez Feijóo on Sunday, star in two events in this city. A community that both PSOE and PP have promoted as a thermometer to determine winners and losers. Whoever wins in order to govern will have a lot of chances to win and take the lead in the coming months. Everyone is looking to Valencia. “Many expectations have been set, perhaps too many,” agree people behind the campaigns of both parties.
Valencia is one of the communities where everything is open. The struggle between blocks is intense and the last week of campaigning can tip the balance depending on, for example, who drags more undecided. But there is something tangible that will be seen in 48 hours: the convening power, the mobilization capacity. The PSOE has finally chosen the City of Arts and Sciences for its event.. The PP has preferred the bullring. A priori, the popular opt for a more powerful image. “The PSOE has doubted where to do it because of its ability to convoke,” they say from the PP. The Socialists use weather reasons to opt for a scenario that, although with less capacity, ensures the act even if it rains.
The question is, why is Valencia so important? Let's start from a widespread consensus in the parties: “It is the symbol of 28-M”. PSOE and PP will be the two most voted parties. «It is not a problem of votes, the result for both will be good. They are the expectations”, summarized within the popular campaign. The matter is summarized as follows: if the PP wins and governs, they will encourage a change in the political cycle in Spain; if the balance falls on the side of the PSOE, the message will be that Sánchez endures, that the progressive governments endure. Valencia “is a key to power.”
Pedro Sanchez, in Zaragoza. . Onion EFE
Let's bring the magnifying glass closer to each game, to understand the weight of the expectation. It could happen that the PP wins the municipal elections but does not govern in Valencia. In this hypothesis, there would be the sensation of a decaffeinated victory, which will be worse if the PSOE does not manage to snatch from the PSOE fiefdoms such as Aragón. Another hypothesis that is valued: that the PP does not win the municipal elections and the Socialists have more votes. In spite of this, if the Popular Party governs Valencia, there would be a feeling of victory. But if they do not conquer this community, within the PP there could be the feeling that the 28-M was raised as a plebiscite against Sanchez, the foundations to “repeal Sanchismo”, and they could not. Looking towards Feijóo’s leadership. As a counterweight Ayuso, whose victory is unappealable, would be strengthened.
Let’s go to the other side. Sanchez, with his protagonism, hogging ads, contributes to the perception that these elections are read as a first round. He arrives in the square of Ximo Puig, the baron akin to the PSOE leader of more weight. He leads a progressive three-party government. Maintaining power would solidify the argument that the president resists and progressive governments have support. That your government action is supported. Now, if the socialists lose Valencia, they are surpassed in Andalusia at the municipal level and knowing that Madrid is popular territory, Sánchez would have a smaller quota of power left than in 2019 and trusting everything to Catalonia, where Colau and Trías are not. making it easy
Barcelona is precisely another enclave that contains great symbolism, fundamentally for the Government. They want to make the management with the independentistas electorally profitable in recent years, it was even encouraged that the so-called 'dialogue operation' be used as an 'electoral asset' in all territories by the candidates. Sánchez and the PSOE are also at stake here. First, see if they are capable of winning and governing. Second, in case it is not like that, see who governs, and if they are the independentistas, what formation. Whether it is ERC or Junts does not have the same consequences, neither in Barcelona nor in Madrid. Because given the entente built this legislature, the PSOE needs a strong ERC looking at the generals.
“The PSOE is in a position right now to revalidate all the community governments in which it is in charge or participates, that's what the figures say, and we are also advancing in cities that we do not govern such as Zaragoza, Malaga or Barcelona,” they expose from Ferraz. “The dispute for the popular vote throughout Spain in the municipal elections is very close, but we have good vibes to continue being the leading political force in the country at the municipal level.”
Those who are in the bowels of the campaigns agree that the guts of the CIS do not end up reflecting a “wave of change”, there is not that breeding ground of 2011 when the PP won the municipal elections and catapulted Mariano Rajoy to La Moncloa. But everything will depend on the glass with which one looks at the night of 28-M, from key places such as Valencia, Barcelona or Andalusia. Because Sanchez and Feijóo are also playing for it.