Ayuso and Abascal stoke the ghost of electoral fraud and ask to avoid postal voting

MadridJoy on the right over Pedro Sánchez's decision to call early elections. Both the PP and Vox have applauded the announcement for November 29, which they see as the definitive opportunity to end the Sanchista era. "Finally, we can close this chapter," celebrated Alberto Núñez Feijóo in an institutional statement at the Popular Party headquarters shortly after the Spanish Prime Minister's announcement. The PP leader has been waiting for years for a second chance to reach La Moncloa after his failed attempt in 2023, and has positioned these new polls as a transcendental occasion in which much more will be done "than choosing between two parties." "This is about making Spain defeat Sánchez and what he represents," proclaimed Feijóo, who urged citizens to decide "if they want four more years of what we are living through or if they want to give change a chance." However, the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has gone a step further and has once again fueled the ghost of electoral fraud.

"I don't trust Sánchez absolutely at all; he is capable of anything," she said. "Let it not occur to anyone to vote by mail," she added at an informative breakfast. The leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, joined in when, in an interview on Espejo Público on Antena 3, he also asked that citizens "not vote by mail." Abascal has demanded "clean elections" and "without violence" and, in a statement before the media, described it as "excellent news to be able to say that finally there are elections." These accusations have caused the PSOE to challenge Feijóo, who has not spoken about this hypothetical risk of electoral fraud, and has urged him to disavow Ayuso and Abascal. This was expressed by various socialist voices at the entrance to the socialist executive meeting this afternoon, who also defended the security of the electoral system.

Condemned to understand each other

In Génova, they have accepted that to manage to govern they will have to reach an understanding again with Vox, which, just as it already did this Monday, will surely shift the debate towards more radical positions during the electoral campaign, although from the outset Abascal's party is starting from a less belligerent attitude against the PP than they had deployed in other stages now that they have coalitions in Extremadura, Aragon, Castile and León, and Andalusia. However, the leader of Vox has warned the PP that it is not worth repeating the mistakes of three and a half years ago and has called for not taking for granted the sum predicted by the polls, according to which the PP and Vox this time would indeed easily surpass the absolute majority that they did not achieve in 2023.

Abascal has recalled, after the regional government pacts that they have already closed with the Popular Party, what the direction is. "National priority", "deregulation", and "re-migration", he indicated. For his part, the president of the PP has presented his project as the opportunity to bet on a "country project" that allows initiating a "necessary" stage of "national reconstruction". "Corruption or change", said Feijóo, who did agree with Abascal in questioning Sánchez's true motivation for calling early elections. In the opinion of the PP leader, the decision is explained by the "fear" that "the last detail of the web of corruption cases" surrounding the PSOE becomes known.

For his part, from an event in Seville, José María Aznar made his particular forecast for the elections: "If the current coalition could form a government again, it is evident that the constitutional system, the unity, and the parliamentary constitutional monarchy that we have known until now will end", he verbalized. The former Spanish president considers that Pedro Sánchez wants them to be elections with a "practically constituent character".

Focus on Ceuta

Once the early election was confirmed, Feijóo chose to focus on Ceuta at the start of the pre-campaign. The PP leader will travel on Wednesday to the autonomous city in what will be Feijóo's fifth trip to Ceuta since the mass entry of immigrants. Sources from Génova have remarked that he will reiterate "his firm commitment to the Spanish identity" of both Ceuta and Melilla. Tomorrow, Tuesday, he will also attend the Senate for the Gold Medal award ceremony for the presidents of Ceuta and Melilla, Juan Jesús Vivas and Juan José Imbroda. With his sights now fully set on November 29th and focused on a topic from which he hopes to gain electoral profit, on Thursday Feijóo will gather the national board of directors of the PP, the party's highest body between congresses, to "begin to move forward in the preparation for the date with the polls".