Feijóo joins Ayuso and will ask for "more guarantees" for postal voting

MadridIt didn't even take Isabel Díaz Ayuso an hour to generate the first controversy of the electoral pre-campaign. Before Alberto Núñez Feijóo could comment on Pedro Sánchez's decision to call early elections, the Madrid president had already set the agenda by stoking the ghost of electoral fraud. "I ask that no one even think about voting by mail," she insisted early Monday morning at an informative breakfast. Since then, this warning, launched without any evidence of the supposed risk of rigging, has become one of the most discussed topics, and has caused the PP to get tangled up trying to strike a balance. The leader of the Popular Party, in fact, avoided speaking publicly on the matter for three days until this Wednesday, when he joined Ayuso and her thesis.

In a press conference from Ceuta, Feijóo announced that "in the coming days" his party will ask the Central Electoral Board (JEC) to adopt "additional measures to increase the guarantee of the postal vote". In this way, the popular president subscribes to the doubts that had been expressed not only by the leader of the Madrid PP but also by Vox. Feijóo argued his distrust by saying that he does not trust "the directors of Correos", since it belongs to the State Society of Industrial Participations (SEPI), a public entity attached to the Ministry of Finance that manages the Spanish state's participation in numerous strategic companies and is under the focus of the courts due to the Leire Díez case. On the other hand, the popular leader assured that he "fully trusts the mail carriers and public workers" of this public company that he himself directed in the early 2000s.

The person who had distanced himself most from Ayuso's thesis until now, although avoiding confrontation, had been the PP spokesperson, Borja Sémper, one of the most moderate voices in the party. In an interview with RNE this Wednesday, Sémper called for voting "by land, sea, and air". The popular spokesperson sent a message of reassurance to potential right-wing voters who might fear that their vote would be manipulated if they cast it by mail: "Fortunately, we have tools and we have the capacity to control that the system works". Sémper remarked that this electoral system is "guarantor" and is controlled by the JEC, where the PP is represented. At the same time, he also avoided disauthorizing Ayuso, assuring that he understands "the fear" that "many people" may have, taking into account the "precedents" of what Sánchez can do.

Feijóo has chosen to announce this move in the face of this fear of a hypothetical manipulation that has been generated from within his own political space. Génova had avoided dismantling it despite the nuances introduced by Sémper and the criticism it has received from the left, which has defended the existing guarantee system and has accused the PP of acting in an "undemocratic" way. Shortly before the popular leader finally spoke out, Ayuso's executive had insisted that the best option was in-person voting. "We prefer to see the vote fall into the ballot box," said the spokesperson for the Madrid government, Miguel Ángel García Martín. It remains to be seen whether with the measures that the JEC may adopt at Feijóo's request, this preference of the Madrid PP may eventually change.