Pedro Sánchez asked this Saturday, at the PSOE rally in Palma de Mallorca, for “the vote of all Europeanists who want more Europe and not less Europe”, in contrast to the support that Santiago Abascal has obtained from some of the ultra leaders of the continent who stand out most for their anti-Europeanism, such as the Hungarian Viktor Orbán and the Italian Matteo Salvini. 70% of Spaniards are related to the European Union, according to the 2024 Eurobarometer, which expressly asked about this link, exceeding the European average of 63%.
The president has appealed at the event, which has brought together more than 5,000 people according to the organization, to citizens who, regardless of their ideology, "want a solution to the crises" like the one that the Government gave in 2020 in the pandemic "with European funds and not with the austericide to which the right and the extreme right subjected the countries of southern Europe, including Spain, during the financial crisis." Sánchez managed to make Spain the country that received the most funds from Brussels to combat the impact of covid in the worst health crisis in a century, only behind Italy.
The relationship of the Vox candidate with the leaders of the global far-right has been one of the common threads of the rally, in which no distinctions were made between Abascal and Alberto Núñez Feijóo. “What we do not want for the world, we do not want for our country,” stressed Sánchez, who recalled the triumph of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil against the partners of Abascal and, therefore, of Feijóo, according to La Moncloa and Ferraz. "What do Feijóo and Abascal represent? They do not represent an alternative to anything because they do not offer anything except cuts and the chainsaw," stated the PSOE candidate. A dialogue had been scheduled for Monday between Sánchez and Lula at the UGT headquarters in Madrid, in another nod to the unions after the attacks that the right has dedicated to them due to the general strike, but it has been suspended because the Latin American president suffers from aphonia.
In Sánchez's opinion, the leaders of PP and Vox "represent the same insults, the same lies and the same cuts as the family to which they belong: the far-right international led by Trump, by Milei and by Bolsonaro, by Le Pen, Meloni, Salvini and Orbán," he said. The Italian Prime Minister has shown her support for Abascal in a video broadcast at a Vox event in the Plaza de Colón in Madrid: "You know the esteem and affection I have for you. I am sure that you will continue to defend your ideas with passion and the determination as always (...) I would very much like to be able to collaborate with you on another level," she dedicates to him. Sánchez has taken advantage of this support to warn of the “strongest support of the anti-European extreme right” for Abascal.
'Maricarmen' decree against Ayuso's 'aticazo'
The general secretary of the PSOE has focused his third campaign rally in one of the 18 priority constituencies in which the socialists are playing the elections, on denouncing “the bad education” of the PP and Vox and blaming them for being the cause of the polarized atmosphere in the Congress of Deputies. The president has highlighted how in the three years that Francina Armengol has been the president of Parliament "she has seen how the insult covered her anxieties in Congress, how the lack of arguments, how the noise, how the shouting tried to be imposed on those of us who proposed solutions to the real problems of citizens." Sánchez thanked Armengol for, as president, “having remained calm and defended good manners in the public debate” in the lower house.
The president of the Congress and general secretary of the socialists of the Balearic Islands has declared herself “very proud” that in her time as the third authority of the State, the use of co-official languages has been approved in Parliament “and Catalan, Basque and Galician were spoken” on a daily basis in parliamentary sessions. “And the PP goes, Feijóo, and says that it will be the first thing it will remove,” he warned in his speech, in which he combined Spanish and Catalan. The former regional president (2015-2023) has stressed that Sánchez “is the strongest person” she knows and that on 29-N “we also vote against the bad education of PP and Vox”, as Sánchez has pointed out. “It is not that the country is polarized, it is that some did not accept the electoral result, and they are going to rage because Sánchez is going to be the president again,” he added. “There is no polarization, there is a climate of aggressiveness sought,” he stated last month in an interview in EL PAÍS.
In a community where the housing crisis is one of the great social dramas, Sánchez has questioned the PP and Vox for their rejection of the approval of the housing decree symbolically known as the Maricarmen decree for the elderly woman who was evicted in September in Madrid and who died in the hospital without being able to return to the old rented apartment in which she lived for seven decades. “What objection do you have?” he stressed, wearing a T-shirt with the message in Catalan La força de la gent. The president has criticized that Feijóo "endorses" the purchase of the "aticazo" for the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, in reference to the controversial purchase for 6.3 million euros in which the Court of Auditors has seen signs of improper use of public funds, and not the measures to avoid evictions like that of Maricarmen. And he celebrated that the Permanent Deputation of the Lower House passed the decree this Thursday, hours before the formal start of the campaign. “We have made our country a little better.”
Armengol has also influenced housing, which has become one of the strong ideas of the socialists. “Feijoo's model for housing is Marga Prohens, the current Balearic president, and since she has been in office, rental housing has increased by 70% and people with decent salaries in the Balearic Islands have to live in caravans or shared rooms.” "Well, on Thursday we approved the Maricarmen royal decree, which makes us all proud in Congress. And who voted against? The PP and Vox."
Rosario Sánchez Grau, deputy secretary general of the Balearic Islands federation and candidate in May for the presidency of the autonomous Council, has insisted on the mobilization. “The right wants us to stay at home, but on November 29 we are going to vote by force and we are going to win the elections, because we have the spirit, the hope, the conviction and the best candidate, who has injected us with enthusiasm, strength and positive energy,” he noted and his words have brought the public to their feet. “Thank you for standing up to the right, which has made you pay dearly and has attacked you and your family with the most cruel aggression and with its most miserable hatred,” he told Sánchez.
