The PP devoted almost the same attention to criticizing the PSOE and Vox and their “confrontation” with the socialists at the beginning of the Extremadura election campaign, in which Alberto Núñez Feijóo and María Guardiola only hold an absolute majority. The Prime Minister asked to bring forward the elections to an atypical date, December 21, on the eve of the Fat Boy’s Christmas draw, with the aim of dampening the crisis of the Socialists, whose general secretary and regional candidate, Miguel Ángel Gallardo, is on trial for alleged links with David Sánchez, brother of the Prime Minister. The trial is already set for February and will determine a campaign in which, while the PSOE is content to limit the damage, the PP aspires to move from the current 28 seats to the 33 which would give them an absolute majority. Polls do not reflect growth of that caliber and perceive that the far right will also benefit and will once again be essential to governability. This horizon explains the determination that Feijóo and Guardiola have put this Sunday to concentrate the conservative and non-ideological vote, suspicious of Vox’s influence in Extremadura, unlike the agreement that the PP has yet to conclude in the Valencian Community to avoid a repeat of the elections.
“The vice wanted to paralyze Extremadura and María did not resign. There are two options: those who want to stop this land or those who want to move it. What is convenient for Sánchez or what is convenient for Extremadura. Everyone is running against the PP but we will win because we are going with Extremadura”, underlined Feijóo in a demonstration held in Lobón, a town of 2,700 inhabitants where the PP has governed since 20 years halfway. between Badajoz and Mérida, chosen for its position to mobilize the party and demonstrate strength. “We will make things clear at the polls on 21 December. I am convinced that we will succeed, because we have the best ally, which is reason, and because we have the best candidate. We are running for office against everything and everyone: we do not trust ourselves, because before us we have the grip of the bloc, which will try everything. We take nothing for granted. Every vote must be talked about, every city must be visited and in this way we will be able to achieve great results. A victory that Extremadura needs”, he declared the president of the PP.
Obtaining a “sufficient majority”, as the guest mayor, Roberto Romero, underlined, is the great aim of the elections which Guardiola justifies with the lack of budgets, with the pretext that the opposition would overturn its accounts even if the full amendments would not have been successful due to the crossed vetoes between PSOE, Unidas Podemos and Vox, and the parliamentary procedure would have continued with the negotiation of the partial amendments. We really want to win. Vox stopped being part of the solution and became part of the problem. In Extremadura there is another party that Extremadurans voted for to make change possible, but which has betrayed this region. Vox in Extremadura has stopped being part of the solution and has become part of the problem. Which party of change systematically votes with the PSOE and Podemos? More than forty times in the last year, in the Extremaduran Assembly, they have embraced the flag of the fist and the rose, Gallardo’s PSOE. This is the squeeze, a squeeze that is causing a lot of damage to Extremadura. “They are dazzled by the lights of the polls, instead of really looking at this land that needs it, instead of sitting down to negotiate budgets and propose measures that help improve people’s lives”, attacked the president of the region, forced by Genoa to agree in 2023 with Santiago Abascal’s party against his initial intentions. “How easy it is to be an anti-system party, it is very easy to get behind a banner to shout, it is very easy to say atrocities without responsibility, without any contribution, without bills to pay. There is nothing like that courageous right that in the morning gives lessons in purity and in the afternoon gives pure oxygen to the PSOE of Sánchez and Gallardo”, added Guardiola.
The judicial front of the PSOE was one of the central themes of the demonstration five weeks before the elections, which will open another season of cascade elections with the subsequent stages in Castilla y León (March) and Andalusia (June at the latest) if there are no other surprises. “What lessons will we receive from a PSOE resting in apathy, in absolute laziness, from a party that thinks only of itself, of its lists, of its seats, of its seats, of its favors?”, hammered Guardiola, challenging Gallardo’s candidacy. “What will those who applaud and elect a leader accused of prevarication and influence peddling tell us about life? What will they tell us? Unfortunately, this is the headliner who among other things has two very important appointments on the agenda: one on December 21st, even if not even his people want it, and the other on February 9th, when he will have to sit before a judge to show himself. What exemplary nature is this? Which party does he choose as leader? A man who has deceived everyone Extremadura, a man who used public money to pay for his favors, to secure a small fortune. Which Extremadura do we want? The one with dignity or the one with the ball? Because this man is not worthy of running”, declared the president of Extremadura, with whom the PP aspires to govern for the first time in Extremadura.
“There was a time when the Socialist Party here, in Extremadura, had its own voice. And today it is a simple, docile and obedient extension of the worst of Pedro Sánchez. The Socialist Party of Extremadura is an offshoot of his irresponsibility, his scandals, his obstruction, his corruption, his inequality and his lies,” Feijóo reiterated. Sánchez will begin pre-campaign on Wednesday in Mérida, two weeks after having to suspend his first meeting with the Gallardo due to a heavy rain and thunderstorm. The expectation is that the prime minister will participate in four demonstrations until December 21st.
The future of the Almaraz nuclear power plant, which is scheduled to close in 2027 but the companies that own it hope to extend it until 2030, has been another source of criticism for the PSOE and the central government. “They are capable of convincing us that it is good for Extremadura to close Almaraz. I saw at the congress the deputies of the PSOE, Sumar and Podemos vote to close Almaraz. It is a betrayal of Extremadura and they will not close it, this is my commitment”, declared Feijóo. “Sánchez was left alone, without excuses, to close our nuclear power plant in Almaraz. The next time he comes to Extremadura he will have to stop for a moment in Almaraz and announce the expansion of our nuclear power plant. Do it now, rectify it, stop punishing Extremadura!”, added Guardiola.
The president of Extremadura also appealed to the female vote, the main electorate of the PSOE, placing all the emphasis on the denigrating behavior of José Luis Ábalos and Koldo García revealed by the Central Operational Unit (UCO) in their reports on the corruption case which sees the last secretary of the PSOE Organization, Santos Cerdán, in provisional prison since 30 June and has put his predecessor and former Minister of Works on the witness stand Public. “They say they are feminists because they are socialists, but feminism collapses when they turn off the lights, engage in prostitution and treat women like cattle,” she hammered after recalling her status as “the first female president of Extremadura and the PP”. “This hurts the fundamentalists, the pure spirits of feminism. Those who made the yes-means-yes law possible, those who brought rapists and sexual abusers to the streets, those who circulated anti-abuse bracelets, who failed, will not teach us lessons,” he underlined in his strategy. lotus hunter in which the demobilization of the left can influence the result.
