Feijóo celebrates the early election: "May Spain beat Sánchez"

MadridJoy on the right over Pedro Sánchez's decision to call early elections. Both the PP and Vox have applauded the November 29th announcement, 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 the Moncloa after the frustrated attempt in 2023, and he has framed these new polls as a transcendental event in which much more will be done "than choosing between two parties." "This is about Spain defeating Sánchez and what he represents," proclaimed Feijóo, who urged the public to decide "if they want four more years of what we are experiencing or if they want to give change a chance."

Santiago Abascal also appeared with exultation at the Vox headquarters to make his own institutional statement, in which he labeled it "excellent news to be able to say that there are finally elections." "We have been asking for them for years," said the far-right leader, who assured that they are "absolutely prepared." However, Abascal warned the PP that they must not repeat the mistakes of three and a half years ago and called for not taking for granted the sum predicted by the polls, according to which the PP and Vox would this time easily exceed the absolute majority they failed to achieve in 2023. The Vox leader recalled, after the regional government pacts they have already closed with the Popular Party, what the direction is. "National priority," "deregulation," and "re-migration," he indicated.

In Génova, they are well aware that to manage to govern they will have to reach an understanding with Vox again, which will surely shift the debate toward more radical positions during the election campaign, although initially Abascal's party is starting with a less belligerent attitude toward the PP than they had displayed in other stages now that they have coalitions in Extremadura, Aragon, Castile and León, and Andalusia. What Abascal has done, unlike Feijóo, is to cast doubt on the integrity of the electoral process and has openly stoked the ghost of fraud. The PP leader has called for "clean elections" and "without violence" and has warned against the "militias" that could put them at risk, in reference, among others, to the immigrants who still remain on El Trampolín beach in Ceuta.

As usual, the one who has indeed deployed far-right theories is Isabel Díaz Ayuso. At an informative breakfast that coincided with Sánchez's announcement, the Madrid president said that "no one should think of voting by mail". It is the same line as Abascal, who in an interview on Espejo Público on Antena 3, prior to the statement, also asked that citizens "do not vote by mail". "I do not trust Sánchez at all; he is capable of anything", he said, and added that "he has his entire entourage in prison". "Corruption or change", Feijóo also said, 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 "every last detail of the network of corruption cases" surrounding the PSOE will be known.

The PP proposes "to rebuild"

Feijóo has accused Sánchez of being motivated by a "personalist ambition." In contrast, the president of the PP has presented his project as the opportunity to bet on a "country project" that allows for the start of a "necessary" stage of "national reconstruction." In this sense, Ayuso has proposed that the polls face the dichotomy between "communism and freedom." The audience that went to hear her at the Palace Hotel in Madrid – mainly popular party leaders and businesspeople – received the electoral call with applause. "These are decisive hours for Spain. If things do not change, we are entering a very dangerous path," warned the Madrid president, who predicted "the definitive collapse of the Spain we know" if Sánchez manages to return to govern.