How much can the 'Bildu theme' be stretched in the campaign?

2023-05-17T21:37:26.157Z

Highlights: Sánchez considers the controversy exhausted with the rectification of the 'abertzale' party, but the PP clings to ETA in the campaign. A member of the dome of Feijóo affirms that "the housing law rises on the ashes of the Hipercor attack" The question that was asked this Wednesday in all the campaign headquarters and in the halls of the Congress and the Senate is: how long can it last? The controversy of Bildu has already eaten several days of campaigning.

Sánchez considers the controversy exhausted with the rectification of the 'abertzale' party, but the PP clings to ETA in the campaign. A member of the dome of Feijóo affirms that "the housing law rises on the ashes of the Hipercor attack", while La Moncloa trusts that by the weekend, with central rallies, the third has changed

In the dome of the PP they assure that the antisanchismo, epicenter of his campaign until Bildu arrived, is what most unites the popular voters, of Vox and of Citizens. And since Alberto Núñez Feijóo wants to fish in all those fishing grounds, the campaign design was clear: repeal Sanchismo. But ETA unites the right even more, even 12 years after it stopped killing and five years after it ceased to exist. So much unites, that it even dissipates the distances between moderates and hardliners in the PP. The leader of that sector who defines himself as moderate, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, raised the bar on Tuesday by saying that Pedro Sánchez "is more generous with the executioners than with the victims." The instruction was clear, so his team followed it to the letter but with some versions even with more decibels.

The one who went furthest was a member of the leadership, the Steering Committee that meets every Monday, Senator Pedro Rollán. The housing law was definitively approved in the Senate, the first of democracy, and Rollán said that the foundations of this norm, agreed by the PSOE and Unidas Podemos with ERC and Bildu, "rise on the ashes of the Hipercor shopping center, with 21 dead, four of them children. "

Another popular politician framed in moderation as Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, the Andalusian president, who always tries to avoid the harshest tones and has managed with that strategy to expand the space of the PP in this community to take it to the absolute majority, showed to what extent the strategy of talking only about Bildu and ETA has permeated the entire structure of the PP, as a campaign instruction that overrides any other issue. Moreno, who two weeks ago suffered the onslaught of the Government by Doñana and was forced to park at least for the moment his plan to legalize irrigation in the surroundings of the park, has found a way to turn it around: ETA. He was asked about the rejection of the third vice president, Teresa Ribera, to an urban project with a golf course that the Board has authorized near Doñana, a "crazy idea" for the minister. "I would like that courage that some show in attacking and insulting Andalusia, they had to criticize that there are still 37 ETA collaborators on the electoral lists of Bildu," replied the Andalusian president.

ETA is valid for everything in the campaign. But the question that was asked this Wednesday in all the campaign headquarters and in the halls of the Congress and the Senate, where the last sessions were lived before the final stretch, clear of plenary sessions to concentrate on the rallies, is: how long can it last? The controversy of Bildu has already eaten several days of campaigning. The Socialists insist that it is a media issue, that people are not in it and their campaign of ads and sensitive issues – this Wednesday they have returned to housing, with the approval of the law and taking advantage of the fact that Sánchez was in the Balearic Islands, a place where the problem is especially dramatic and the policy of the PSOE Government also very intense. but the popular believe that Bildu has blown up the president's campaign and will no longer recover.

Multiple factors

Sánchez has officially given up the controversy this Wednesday in Congress. Of course, the president does not play alone, nobody does it in politics, and everything will depend on multiple factors. Campaigns have a life of their own. But he has sought a special staging, very thoughtful, to give that closure, at least from the vision of the PSOE: a cross with Mertxe Aizpurua, the spokesperson for Bildu in Congress. Everything was very measured. He told him that "it is not decent" what they did by putting terrorists on the lists, and that from the world of former ETA members "a much more resounding and forceful message of reparation, forgiveness, reconciliation and homage to the victims" is expected.

But he also told him another thing that makes it very clear that the Government accepts the rectification of Bildu and will continue with its negotiations on social issues. The PSOE does not support Bildu to govern in any institution or vice versa – in fact the PSN let UPN take over the city council of Pamplona precisely because it did not want to support Bildu in any government – and has enormous fundamental discrepancies on very sensitive issues such as the management of post-terrorism, but it does agree with them Budgets based on social negotiations and laws such as housing. Aizpurua, spearhead of Bildu's strategy that tries to focus its new agenda on social issues to expand its political space, asked about the social shield, which has to be renewed in June. And Sánchez told him that of course in June depending on the situation there will be a new decree with measures of the social shield and concluded: "We hope to have your support." That is, things will remain more or less the same.

The Government is convinced that Bildu has rectified because it has realized the enormous nonsense that is trying to transfer to society that it is a group that wants to do politics, focus on social issues and dispute the PNV primacy in the Basque Country, and at the same time have bloodthirsty terrorists on their lists. He has not backed down to do the Executive a favor in the campaign, say the Socialists, but for his own interest. The PNV, in fact, was already cornering Bildu with this issue. Conversations between the PSOE and Bildu are frequent and fluid, not only in Congress for daily matters. And in these days there have also been contacts to transfer the error that this turn supposed – Sánchez already said it publicly on Friday – and to know if they planned to rectify. But Bildu works in a very complex way, with many filters and many decision tables. It came to the Socialists that there could be rectification, but without certainties. Until finally Tuesday arrived and, at least in the interpretation of the PSOE, it was resounding, with a very self-critical statement.

Now it remains to be seen how much the PP manages to stretch the controversy. Several popular leaders consulted believe that it will be very difficult for Sánchez to return to the axis he had in mind, of announcements and debates about his management. The president at the moment this Wednesday has decided not to make any announcement, in view of the fact that the Bildu issue is still sweeping. But from tomorrow things could change. In the PSOE they are convinced that the controversy will not come strong to the weekend, decisive because the last polls will arrive and especially the great central rallies, with the epicenter in the Valencian Community, the jewel in the crown: Sánchez will go on Saturday and Feijóo on Sunday, and hopes to fill the bullring. If the Bildu issue gets there alive, it will be very difficult to change the campaign. If not, the game starts again and the end as always will be very uncertain.

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