2023-05-12 01:02:16
The electoral race enters its final phase with the start of the electoral campaign in Castilla-La Mancha. The pre-election surveys have given disparate results in this region in terms of regional results: those that revalidate the current absolute majority of the socialist Emiliano García-Page, those that contemplate that it will be PP and Vox who will form the government and those that once again grant representation to United We Can, this coalition being decisive for a progressive Executive. In 15 days it will be the electorate who decides, but for now, all the parties have already launched their campaigns in an autonomous community that can decide to what extent the ultra-right can be decisive in the country.
The electoral messages in the symbolic ‘paste of posters’ have reflected this. The first to give the starting signal was Carmen Picazo, candidate for the Junta de Castilla-La Mancha and for Mayor of Albacete for Ciudadanos, at the party’s headquarters in this city. The majority of surveys leave the orange formation without representation in the regional courts, after having obtained four seats in 2019 and going through one of its worst crises in this region, between escapes and resignations.
Its starting message has been clear: the orange formation is “the party of families, the party of the middle class, the party of all those who are fed up with the old trenches and want modernity and honesty.” The candidate for Parliament has asked for a vote with the aim of “being decisive in building a government majority from the center and not from the extremes.”
In this regard, the leader of the orange formation has ensured that Ciudadanos is an alternative “more progressive than the PSOE and more liberal than the PP” and has positioned the vote for CS as the natural option for “those who are fed up with a mediocre politician like Emiliano García-Page, who has left Castilla-La Mancha in the tail in health, education and employment, but they do not even want in painting that the alternative is a Vox government with Paco Núñez as president ”.
Then it was the turn of the United Podemos confluence, with its candidate for the regional Presidency, José Luis García Gascón, also in Albacete and together with the United Podemos Transport spokesman in Congress, Rafa Mayoral; the candidate for Mayor of Albacete, Nieves Navarro Rodenas; and the candidate for Albacete to the autonomous courts, Carmen Fajardo. That coalition won two seats -for Toledo and Guadalajara- eight years ago and came to govern alongside García-Page, but lost them in the 2019 elections.
“We are back”, said Rafa Mayoral as the main message of the campaign for 28M in Castilla-La Mancha. “We are the guarantee that there is a progressive government in this autonomous community. We want to appeal to the socialists who are disappointed, who are sad because the government has been used against left-wing policies and are often accomplices of right-wing approaches. The vote of hope, that defends public services and of the social majorities, is the vote for United We Can ”, she underlined.
Likewise, José Luis García Gascón has referred to the CIS survey, which predicts “what is breathed in the streets, that we are going to be fundamental for there to be a progressive change and to defend social and environmental policies, the solution to the cuts and privatizations of Cospedal” to which, as he has said, García-Page has given “continuity”.
Objective: “Progressive Majority”
“We are going to take deputies from the right so that there is a progressive majority, so that there is a new stage and with that energy and that hope we start this campaign in which there are 15 days left to confirm what the people want, that social rights are at the center of the next Government, of which we are going to be a part”, added the candidate for the regional Presidency.
At 9:00 p.m., the opening ceremony of the campaign of the PP candidate for the Presidency of the Board, Paco Núñez, began, together with Carmen Fúnez, deputy secretary of Social Policies of the party at the state level. The act has been in Campo de Criptana (Ciudad Real). This is a nod to the agrarian sector of a party that aspires to wrest the absolute majority from the PSOE but which, if it were to govern, would be hand in hand with the extreme right of Vox, according to some surveys, as in Castilla y León. Núñez’s pre-campaign has been tarnished after it was made public that the party leader, who took over from María Dolores de Cospedal, had collected irregular mileage payments that did not correspond to his addresses.
Paco Núñez has said that with this campaign begins “the political and cycle change in our land” and has said that the PP has shown throughout the pre-campaign “that it believes in Spain and is committed to Castilla-La Mancha as one of the engines of development of the region”. Thus, he has referred to “the enterprising, hard-working and brilliant people” that exist throughout the autonomous community: “We are humble, brave people, who like to pitch in and enjoy the customs and traditions that make us unique” .
For all these reasons, he has proposed “to bring enthusiasm, determination and political strategy” in a change “as unstoppable as it is calm and moderate” where “rigor, efficiency and professionalism of management” prevail. Núñez has framed this objective in the “illusion to turn the page of a stage that has shown that it has not been able to take full advantage of the potential that this region has”. And he has affirmed that after four years touring Castilla-La Mancha, the PP has a “clear diagnosis” of what this land needs for what it has defended, not just “changing one president for another” or “leading a change that very soon It will reach all of Spain with Alberto Núñez Feijóo ”.
Page: “The proposals are more important to me than talking about our achievements”
Touching midnight, the current president and candidate for re-election, Emiliano García-Page, has chosen the bullring of Illescas (Toledo) together with the local candidate, the veteran José Manuel Tofiño, for the last electoral stretch before 28M. He aspires to revalidate the absolute majority of him, a ‘rare bird’ in the country along with Extremadura. In his speech before more than 600 people, preceded by a video where messages such as “there is a long way to go” or “let’s keep moving forward together” could be read, the socialist candidate has advanced that he is going “for all” because the PSOE wants “the best for this land.”
“The proposals are more important to me than talking about our achievements. It is important that we tell people what we want to do, not just to prevent others from being there, because we are not in resignation. We lead the investment in health, education and dependency in all of Spain and we are the region in which unemployment has fallen the most in the last four years and this despite all the difficulties. We can look people in the face and they can look at us. And I want a clean campaign, as clean as the management of the PSOE for many years, ”he remarked.
García-Page has highlighted his experience of eight years in government “even when they have not made it easy for us, sometimes with coalitions that were not the best (referring to his time in government with Podemos) and through all the crises possible”, but “with the ambition that many things can be achieved and that the next four years are going to be much better”.
He has had many words of praise for his government advisers who “deserve a monument” for their work during the pandemic and the subsequent war in Ukraine. And he concluded by promising that he will govern “for all”, defending equality policies, arguing that he will continue to put Castilla-La Mancha “ahead of my party and all parties” and asking for the “useful vote” to achieve “an immense most”. “Either the vote goes in the direction of the Socialist Party, with a moderate and not fanatical project, or Núñez governs with Vox,” he warned.
Almost at midnight Vox has also started its campaign in the Toledo Monte Rey Cigarral, with David Moreno, candidate for the Junta and Inés Cañizares, candidate for the Toledo Mayor’s Office. All the polls take for granted the entry of this party in the Castilian La Mancha Parliament, although the unknown is whether or not it will be decisive in forming a government. Moreno explained that the formation faces the campaign “with great desire and enthusiasm”, but also “aware of the responsibility that lies ahead”. “We face these elections to propose a real alternative to those parties that have failed us all,” he stated.
Finally, +Cuenca Ahora, the brand of Spain Emptied for these lessons, has started the campaign in Barajas de Melo, the hometown of the head of the list for the Cortes, Ángel Corpa. The founding singer-songwriter of Jarcha, who is going to tour the entire Cuenca geography, has explained that his objective for the next 15 days is to chat with the residents of all towns “distancing himself from the electoral political acts of the traditional parties.”
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