A long race, conceived as a double lap and with a "photo finish" on the finish line. This is how the Popular Party assumes that the 28-M campaign will be, an appointment with the objective of increasing popular dominance in new territories and large city councils in order to promote and launch Alberto Núñez Feijóo towards La Moncloa in December with the largest possible margin over the PSOE and Vox.
A source from the party leadership defines at what point, less than two months away, the challenge of the PP is: "None of our territory is on the wire, but the PSOE has none of its insured." That is, using football terminology, a strong defense to avoid conceding goals, but a game scheme focused on an offensive approach. The PP will seek to get ahead on the scoreboard in May and keep a clean sheet as a guarantor of strength for the generals.
Who are the territorial forwards of this PP? Today, the formation aspires to unseat the PSOE in several historical autonomies, such as Castilla-La Mancha, Aragón or Extremadura. Also in the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands. On all these points, the polls place the PP well above, or in a technical tie with the PSOE. In all of them they are aware that the absolute majority is far away and that Vox will grow in several of these enclaves, but they are currently setting the goal of winning the elections against the Socialists and depending as little as possible on other forces.
Thus, other voices of the popular apparatus, in conversation with this newspaper, highlight the importance of the final stretch of the campaign and assume that there will be a "photo finish" in more than one territory or large city council. "It will be a very close battle until the last day," these sources reason. Genoa, in this sense, considers the elections in La Rioja and the Balearic Islands already won -Gonzalo Capellán and Marga Prohens, the most trusted person of the general secretary, Cuca Gamarra, are the candidates, respectively-, and sees many options achieve the mayoralty of Seville and Valencia, but calls for prudence with respect to the rest of the autonomies and consistories that today are not popular and that are in contention at this time of the pre-campaign. In the same way, they take it for granted that Fernando López Miras in the Region of Murcia and Isabel Díaz Ayuso in the Community of Madrid will revalidate their mandates.
The big question that hovers over the PP today is what will happen to Vox in those places where those of Santiago Abascal are necessary to govern and what impact a hypothetical pact with Vox in certain regions, in the image and likeness, could have on Feijóo's future campaign of what happens in Castilla y León. "Until the polls give the result, it will be difficult to fit the pieces of the puzzle," analyzes a regional leader of the party, who postponed the debate until after the elections.
In Castilla-La Mancha, for example, a strong progression in the impact that Paco Núñez, the popular candidate, has on public opinion has been noted in recent weeks. "It is a complicated feud, but we have good expectations," say sources from the candidate's environment, who consider that the fall of Emiliano García-Page, if it occurred, "would mean a breakdown in the PSOE" at the national level as a prelude to the generals of December. "If we win in May, there will be a cascade effect," they predict.
The commitment of the leadership of the PP with Castilla-La Mancha, as EL MUNDO has been telling, is absolute: during the campaign Feijóo will attend a couple of times, as will former presidents Aznar and Rajoy, as well as Juanma Moreno and Isabel Diaz Ayuso. Another territory where Genoa is fully committed is Aragon. There Feijóo celebrated his first anniversary as a popular leader and wrapped up one of the men in whom he has placed the most confidence in the face of 28-M. Jorge Azcón hopes to take advantage of his popularity as mayor of Zaragoza to unseat Javier Lambán and "regroup" the moderation vote around a PP that he will replace, probably with the impulse of Vox - and waiting to find out what role Teruel will play Exists, that it could support the PP but never Vox- the division and little stability that the quadripartite commanded by the PSOE supposes.
Would a triumph of the PP in Aragon have an echo on a national scale? "It would be very important to end the cycle in December with a great electoral victory," say voices of the Aragonese PP, aware that it is today one of the closest communities between the left and right blocks. "We understand the elections as if they were two rounds."
In the same way they define them in the Valencian Community, jewel in the crown for the national leadership of the PP. Carlos Mazón, despite not having been chosen by Feijóo but leading the Valencians since the time of Pablo Casado, has become one of the most important figures in the campaign for Genoa. While in the Valencian Generalitat they hope that his low popularity outside of Alicante will take its toll at the polls, the internal polls managed by the PP assert that Mazón will be the most voted on May 28. The fight for the third position between Vox and Compromís will finish tipping the balance between blocks.
Who Vox seems to have no intention of getting along with is María Guardiola, the new PP candidate in Extremadura, who has deployed a program with a strong social component and who has already thrown several darts against those of Abascal. In Genoa, they trust in the setback of Guillermo Fernández Vara and in the potential at the polls of Guardiola, who, despite being unknown until a few months ago, has been compared for her political profile with Ayuso.
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