The PP is forced to agree with Vox but will try to reduce its electoral space

The leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, during his visit to Ceuta on May 19, Joaquín Sánchez

There are 20 months ahead for the PP and Vox to develop their strategies until they reach the municipal and regional elections and, from that moment, line up the general elections to defeat the PSOE.

The bases are already in place although there will be modulations by territories, according to their electoral perspectives.

Vox is nothing without the PP, but the first opposition party in Spain needs the formation of Santiago Abascal to establish itself as a government.

This reality goes against the will of the popular.

And the skirmishes are going to increase, foresee the interlocutors consulted by this newspaper.

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Mutual vigilance will tighten as soon as the political course begins, although this summer's clashes herald an autumn of growing tension. Vox does not want its profile to be diluted where it helps to govern the PP, with its essential collaboration to sustain regional governments, nor for the PP to overwhelm it against the Government in the Cortes Generales. The PP is preparing for Vox to place them in very uncomfortable situations with the presentation of initiatives presided over by the ideological charge in which the popular ones have no interest whatsoever.

Once half of the legislature has passed in 13 autonomous communities and the more than 8,000 municipalities, the qualitative studies on voting intention, concerns and leaderships take place in the parties. Citizens continues to be the target to beat for the PP. But also for Vox, who wants to replace the party of Inés Arrimadas in the governments with the PP.

Some already know that Vox will have to be the necessary cooperator to govern and unseat the PSOE. This is the case of Castilla-La Mancha, where the socialist Emiliano García-Page governs and has as head of the opposition Paco Núñez, president of the PP in the region. He has acknowledged, in an interview with Europa Press, that he is in talks with Vox to reach agreements, although he wants to practice this dialogue with all parties. Apostilles do not cover or deviate from Núñez's intention. "The common goal is to drive out socialism", and the understanding of the "center-right", because, he says, the problem is socialism that "brings misery and lack of freedom."

It is clear that PP and Vox need to add to form a majority. The PSOE of La Mancha clings to underlining the ideological space in which Núñez has placed Vox. "Paco Núñez is the only politician in Spain who places Vox in the center-right, when the only moderation alternative is the one represented by Emiliano García-Page." This assessment of the Secretary of Organization of the PSOE of Castilla-La Mancha and national deputy, Sergio Gutiérrez, touches on the eternal dilemma of where the elections are won: through the center, it is the conventional answer. If they know something in certain regions, it is that borders are easily crossed by voters who feel they are at the center and sometimes they can go to the PP and others to the PSOE. Castilla-La Mancha is one of them.An essential trick that the socialists will use will be to agitate the alliance of an extremist party - where they will deliberately frame Vox - and the PP.

This is the discourse that Santiago Abascal's party wants to avoid, not at all inclined to entertain itself with the ideological assignments that others make to it. He addresses "the Spaniards", in front of communists and lukewarm, the latter on the side of the PP and Ciudadanos.

His proclamations focus on issues such as national identity, immigration, and the defense of "freedom."

But spaces matter.

In most of the territories, the popular ones want to go to the "center-right", but they have to combine it with the reminder of the rest of the parties that Vox is at their side, a priori an option that does not seduce the centrists.

The hope of the PP is that the far-right party maintains its "reinforced concrete ceiling."

That it does not grow, better that it falls, says an autonomous president.

Only then will its influence and pressure capacity be limited and manageable.

This is the territorial and national aspiration of the PP.

Controversies that herald new conflicts

The PP must desist from implementing the covid passport to access leisure activities or to abide by the consequences, anticipates Santiago Abascal, president of Vox. “Warning for boaters in rough waters. If Ayuso takes the direction of Feijóo, Juanma Moreno and Sánchez will meet Vox in front of him, even in court. We are not going to allow more violations, discrimination and abuses of the fundamental rights of Spaniards ”.

This is the last crisis between the two formations. The Andalusian president, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, has left the decision in the hands of the courts and the president of Madrid has not made the decision. What is relevant is the attitude of Abascal, who adds this episode to the announcement of the severance of relations with the PP for being declared 'persona non grata' in the Ceuta Assembly. The parliamentary spokesperson for the PP, Cuca Gamarra, asked on Onda Cero yesterday to calm Vox in the heat of the summer holidays.