The first bars of the Catalan campaign of the PP are carried out by the toughest profiles of the party, a reflection of the dog-face competition with Vox on 14-F.
The popular candidate, Alejandro Fernández, was accompanied by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, representative of the ultra-liberal right from Madrid;
and this Sunday he went with Pablo Casado to Badalona, where Xavier García Albiol, known for his speech against immigration, governs.
The alarms are lit in the PP before the rise of Vox in Catalonia.
In the last two polls published, those of this Sunday by Sigma 2 and GESOP, the popular ones are practically in a technical tie with the extreme right, in a range between 5 and 6% of the vote.
The PP runs the risk of being overtaken by Vox and the campaign is adapting to that danger: Pablo Casado has gone on to openly criticize those of Santiago Abascal in all his speeches, and the first acts of the PP are led by the harshest profiles of the party, those who are competitive in the electorate that the conservatives dispute with the extremists of the right wing.
If the leading role on Saturday was the ultra-liberalism of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who traveled to Barcelona to talk about her downward fiscal policy and her model of lax restrictions in the pandemic - “It is a crime in Catalonia, with the climate that you have, have everything closed! ”, exclaimed the president;
this Sunday the place chosen for the second day of the PP campaign was also loaded with symbolism.
Pablo Casado accompanied Alejandro Fernández to Badalona, along with Xavier García Albiol and the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez Almeida.
All of them vindicated Albiol, who ten years ago was already a pioneer in the discourse that Vox deploys today linking immigration and crime.
The PP has won the elections in this municipality of the metropolitan area of Barcelona for the last decade - although half of this period the left has governed by agreeing - thanks to the populist style of the former president of the Catalan PP, who became known throughout Spain for presenting himself to the municipal elections of 2015 with a controversial campaign, criticized for xenophobia, with the slogan of "Cleaning Badalona".
At the rally this Sunday there were no references to immigration, but to the phenomenon of squatting, and several criticisms - explicit and veiled - to Vox.
For the third consecutive day, Casado charged against Abascal's match.
“Vox has helped Sánchez survive in La Moncloa.
We are surprised that when it is voted to create a reptile fund to distribute aid at the whim of Sánchez, there are parties that abstain, "said the leader of the PP in reference to Vox's support for the decree for the management of European funds.
Casado also instilled preventive doubts about the management of these funds: "This is how the EREs began," he said.
The tough profile that is still in the bedroom is that of Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo.
The deputy for Barcelona will premiere with Alejandro Fernández in a ceremony on Friday, February 5.
In principle, his presence will not be highlighted in the campaign, because the open wounds with Casado's leadership still weigh heavily after his dismissal as parliamentary spokesman.
This Sunday, the main leaders of Vox thanked Álvarez de Toledo for “distinguishing himself” by condemning the incidents surrounding Abascal's visit to Girona on Saturday.
"My strongest condemnation," she wrote on Twitter, along with "a hug, dear Santiago Abascal."