Four days before the presidential elections, Spaniards were able to follow, for the only time, the debate between three of the four main candidates to become the next head of the government of Spain.
In what was called "the final debate", the current president and candidate for the PSOE for re-election, Pedro Sánchez, did not hide his harmony with Yolanda Díaz, vice president and Minister of Labor of his government who debuts as a candidate with Sumar, a coalition of 15 parties to the left of the PSOE.
The third speaker was Santiago Abascal, the leader of the far-right party Vox, who had to endure during the hour and a half of debate that was there on behalf of the candidate of the Popular Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, absent with notice.
Núñez Feijóo warned that he would not attend the debate organized by Radiotelevisión Española, the public television, because he doubted his impartiality.
"We are going to witness tonight the lies of Mr. Sánchez," began Abascal, the only party with which the PP could agree to form a government.
The candidates for president of the government of Spain Santiago Abascal (Vox), Yolanda Díaz (Suma), and the current president Pedro Sánchez, of the PSOE, debated on public television. Photo: Cézaro de Luca.
Unequal debate
According to the latest polls, the PP would win the elections in number of votes, although that is not enough to obtain the coveted passport to the Moncloa Palace.
It would have to achieve votes equivalent to half plus one of the 360 deputies that make up the Spanish Parliament or reach that figure by adding adhesions from other forces.
Feijóo rejects the far right although he already agreed with Vox to govern in more than 140 municipalities, after the municipal and regional elections in May.
"Feijóo is embarrassed to appear next to Mr. Abascal, that's why he is not in this debate," Pedro Sánchez said.
It was a two-on-one debate in which the PSOE candidate and the leader of Sumar sought complicity, and barely touched each other.
A placated and almost bored Sánchez remained silent when his Minister of Labor and opponent in next Sunday's elections looked at him and clarified: "Pedro, we have to reduce the working day," Yolanda Díaz told him. We have to leave an hour before work."
"And the retirement age is not going to be extended," the Sumar candidate took for granted in another part of the debate.
Surrounded throughout the evening by the ghost of the absent PP candidate – "Mr. Feijóo is represented today by Mr. Abascal," Díaz said more than once – the leader of Vox again attacked the law of sexual freedom, the so-called law of only yes is yes, which by erasing the distinction between abuse and sexual assault caused an alteration in the penalties that benefited hundreds of sex offenders.
Pedro Sánchez, current head of government and candidate for re-election, arriving at the debate. Photo: Cézaro de Luca.
"Based on an ideology that is pernicious, they have put 117 monsters on the street and have reduced the sentence of more than a thousand," Abascal repeated once again.
It is the liturgy of his party, which does not recognize sexist violence but states that violence has no gender. "It is a million-dollar law that fails to really combat violence against women," Abascal said.
"Mr. Abascal, stop laughing at us," Diaz confronted the Vox leader.
"Do you know why women are killed in our country, Mr. Abascal? Because we are women. And you, by denying violence against women, provoke this," she said and pointed to the figures: since 2003, in Spain, 1,212 women were murdered by their partners or ex-partners.
Yolanda Díaz, current Minister of Labor and candidate of Sumar, attacked Santiago Abascal, of Vox. Photo: Cézaro de Luca.
Crosses with Vox
"His policy for women who are murdered, we receive less salary, we have less social protection, we have a pension gap of 32 percent, his proposal is to repeal all laws," Díaz argued.
"The women of our country are not going to allow it. You are never going to govern for this reason," added the Sumar candidate.
He never rebuked Sánchez although he did not give Abascal any respite: "Have you apologized for the accusation you made for the murder of a woman accusing a migrant?" he asked.
"You have lied. The person who murdered that woman was from San Lorenzo del Escorial. He has a good opportunity to apologize," he said.
"The neighborhoods are degrading as a result of illegal immigration and drug trafficking," the Vox candidate defended.
The candidate for president of the government of Spain Santiago Abascal, of Vox, attends the debate on state channel. Photo: Cézaro De Luca
"We are against hot returns and we want to reform, Pedro, the immigration law," Yolanda Díaz continued. He added that it is his intention to regularize the 500,<> people living in Spain without papers.
Abascal wanted to distance himself from the PP when he pointed out that Núñez Feijóo "has offered a pact to you, not to me."
He was referring to the role that the PP candidate took to the debate alone with Pedro Sánchez in which he proposed to sign an agreement in camera to govern the most voted list.
In his final minute, Abascal stressed: "We are poorer, less free and more divided. Only Vox dares the necessary change of course."
The distances between the two blocks were etched into even the most involuntary details of the candidates. In the way Sanchez and Diaz agreed with each other by calling each other by their names—"As Yolanda said," "Right, Pedro?"- while the leader of Vox was "Mr. Abascal" all night.
And in the final greeting: when the lights went out in the studio, Yolanda Díaz said goodbye to Sánchez with a kiss on the cheek. To Abascal only he extended his hand.
Madrid. Correspondent
See also