Outside the kitchen of the CIS of Tezanos, the most determining battle on the table in this electoral campaign is that of the correlation of results between the PP and Vox. The size of the communicating vessel between one and the other will clarify the viability of a majority that all independent surveys consider consolidated, although never certain. In these two weeks of the via crucis towards the polls, it is decided what mandate the citizens can give them and how they will distribute the flow of the "change" votes.
Among those over 45 years of age, there is no color. The PP sweeps the polls. This is not where the great fight between Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Santiago Abascal is being fought, but, above all, in the youngest strata of the electorate, those most inclined towards "anti-Sanchism." They are the voters who watch The Revolt, who flood Jordi Wild with clicks, who get more information on the networks, who pay more attention to the candidates on TikTok than on morning radio shows and who are more loyal to podcasts than to news programs.
"The plan is to retune with them. Youth has always been associated with the left, and now the left has lost that exclusivity or heritage and young people are clearly opposed to the Government," sources from Genoa explain. So the great dichotomy of these voters is PP or Vox. Abascal's refusal to submit to Jordi Wild's interview in the most influential digital space among right-wing young people, The Wild Project podcast, has opened a "reputational" hole for Vox in this electorate, with hundreds of accusations of cowardice immediately poured out on the networks.
The PP is going to focus on taking advantage of it. "These are decisions that we do not understand," they say in Genoa, where they have stepped on the accelerator after Abascal's unforced error. There, in that symbolic, but very fertile, space of the 18 to 35 year old vote is where the game is played. And there the PP has launched into a storm.
What is the PP going to do and what is it going to say to compete with Vox to seduce the electorate most angry with Pedro Sánchez? "Compete with Vox? We are not competitive in the vote of fury and we are not going to compete with Vox in settling scores. Young people go on Cercanías, they take the AVE, they cannot live in an apartment... And in the management of housing and infrastructure Feijóo is very competitive," they explain in Génova.
Message segmentation
The PP candidate is going to further encourage the segmentation of his messages. This same Friday, he will participate in Madrid, starting at 12 noon, in a rally with young people, together with the president of New Generations (NNGG), Ignacio Dancausa, and Baroness Isabel Díaz Ayuso.
Feijóo has ordered New Generations to multiply and occupy the digital space that he does not reach, with Dancausa as a battering ram and with Jon Echevarría as a candidate for Guipúzcoa and an example of his commitment to young profiles. "We have to have people who convey that message in places where newspapers or radios are not consumed. We multiply our speakers. We have to take our voice where it is not easy" for Feijóo, his campaign team emphasizes.
"We are going to play away from home as much as necessary. The candidate leaves his comfort zone with interviews in El Chiringuito, As, Jordi Wild or Marca." Feijóo will also attend the podcast The Sense of Beer and other spaces that his collaborators do not yet want to reveal.
The PP's digital strategy has also completely changed, more focused on Twitter rants, intemperate criticism, vitriolic images created with artificial intelligence and even troll language. "The digital content we are making is not intended for a voter who has already decided not to choose us, but for a voter who accesses politics in another, more disruptive way," the Feijóo team explains. "We have upset all our rivals and we have caught the attention of our own," they add.
Superhero 'Anotop At'
This new digital approach also includes ironic self-parody. "The networks have been filled with images of superheroes with the phrase Anotop At, without us making them," they explain. They refer to Feijóo's famous mistake in Congress, when he wanted to say that if a series were made about Sánchez, it would be titled "Anatomy of a Failure", but he stumbled and his microphone was turned off.
The success of these memes made the PP ride the wave this Thursday, from the official NNGG account, which tweeted a message calling Feijóo "Anotop At." The PP's plan is to humanize the candidate. Rajoyize it a little. And, from there, "bet on the cultural battle, to take the ideas of the PP where Feijóo does not reach."
In the group of voters between 18 and 29 years old, PP and Vox are currently in a technical tie, according to the latest Sigma Dos survey for EL MUNDO. Feijóo convinces 24.6% of those surveyed and Abascal, 24%. The PSOE is far away, with a voting intention of 18% in that group. Almost the same thing happens from 30 to 44 years: The PP would achieve 24.7% of the votes and Vox, 22.4%.
The popular program has a block aimed at "rebuilding the pact between generations" and promises a gradual four-year plan for personal income tax cuts for those entering the labor market for the first time. But the key to Feijóo's entire speech to convince young people will be housing, with a VAT reduction from 10% to 4% for those under 40, state guarantee for purchases or the "young piggy bank" for savings.
