The "home first" principle turns the Andalusian campaign upside down

BarcelonaPolitical parties have been able to hold the first day of the electoral campaign in Andalusia this May 1st, after the starting gun was fired last dawn. And, despite the president of the Regional Government, the Popular Party's Juanma Moreno Bonilla, not wanting to admit it, the party setting the pace of the campaign is Vox. The Andalusian president knows he could lose the majority by just a handful of votes. And that's why his party is concentrating on trying to strengthen the centrist electoral base, to avoid defections, despite the headaches caused by "the 'national priority' that the PP itself has agreed with Vox" in Extremadura and Aragon. The political victory that Alberto Núñez Feijóo has handed to the far-right has completely disrupted an election that is the Galician leader's first acid test after his umpteenth strategic turn with concessions to Le Penism, which popularized the slogan 'Our people first'.

Moreno insisted at the campaign's starting gun that it is necessary to retain "a strong and solid government", but he also issued a warning against an excess of "confidence". A "climate of confidence", repeated by the deputy secretary of the state leadership, Elías Bendodo, which could scupper the moderate leader's plans and force him to make a deal with Vox, which would lead him to renounce his moderation. This is where the nerves come from: polls, such as the CIS poll, reinforce that the PP has an absolute majority within reach, but with a wear and tear that pushes Moreno to the limit and Vox to the brink of its big opportunity, despite a slight setback. The PSOE, for its part, could grow, which is the objective of the socialist candidate, María Jesús Montero, who at this point no poll gives the possibility of presiding over the Regional Government with an agreement with the left.

Montero, however, has insisted on her commitment to "defend public services" and attack the "discrimination" of the national priority. The Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, has joined in and lamented the "hatred" of the PP and Vox, while he has vindicated the Spanish government against the "apocalypse" that the right-wing is preaching. In the same vein, former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has expressed migrant "pride" and has equated PP and Vox.

The left, in general, has also taken the opportunity to capitalize on the May Day demonstration in the region, in which the second vice-president, Yolanda Díaz, has rowed in favor of the Por Andalucía candidacy and has lashed out at the right: "It's not the same who governs", she said.

Pugna PP-Vox

But the far-right is also getting into dialectical trouble as a result of its own discursive monopoly. Gavira has acknowledged an uncomfortable fact for the party in an interview to National priority is marking the Andalusian agenda so much that Vox has raised the hatchet when it read this sentence from the PP's electoral program: "We will favor labor, economic and cultural integration through programs aimed at the rooting, insertion and social promotion of immigrants." On the contrary, the leader of Vox and candidate for the region, Manuel Gavira, has defined the slogan "Andalusians first," that is, national priority, as key to his electoral message. In turn, the state leader, Santiago Abascal, has warned that it is being decided "whether Moreno continues with his hands free to do nothing", while he has doubted the fairness of future Spanish elections.

Contradictions

But the far-right is also getting into dialectical messes as a result of its own discursive monopoly. Gavira has acknowledged an uncomfortable fact for the party in an interview with El Confidencial this Friday: that a Peruvian in a regular situation who has been rooted in Andalusia for ten years will jump ahead of a newly arrived Madrilenian because “he already has the roots for national priority” – he claims to have nationality, although with the agreement in hand he doesn't need it.

These statements have given air to the PP, which this week has gone to great lengths to defend that the majority of Spaniards defend national priority by clinging to internal polls published by El Mundo. In contrast, critical Vox leaders such as the former vice-president of Castilla y León, Juan García-Gallardo, have lamented the statements: “National priority, but not much,” he said on X.

Another key factor will be the agrarian issue. Both Vox and the alternative left beyond the PSOE have questioned the Mercosur agreement – which comes into force this Friday –, and which facilitates the arrival of South American products in Spain. The agricultural sector has demonstrated against it, and the popular and socialist parties, who are the ones who promoted it, have vindicated it this Friday.

Amidst the great struggle between the PP, PSOE and Vox, Endavant Andalusia and Por Andalucía also emerge, two left-wing formations that are competing for an electorate: the former aspires to improve its representation and the latter to avoid a slight setback predicted by the CIS.

Difficulties

The last stretch of the legislature has not been calm for the PP. Although the right recurrently recalls the corruption scandal of the ERE of Andalusia, from the Andalusian PSOE government, the mess with the breast cancer screenings carried out by the PP government hit the waterline. Even Vox called for the resignation of the president and early elections. Nor can the case of alleged corruption of PP leaders from Almería through the provincial council be overlooked.