Feijóo should accept the 6-debate challenge...
...and raise Sánchez's bet.
Radio presenter Carlos Alsina managed to get half an answer out of PP leader Feijóo this morning on the question of the 6-debate challenge thrust on the table by Sánchez yesterday: Feijóo agreed there would be “a head-to-head between Mr. Sánchez and myself”. One. He has allowed for one, which is more than none but still far short of the large size of the socialist dare. The conservative leader still looks weak and cowardly. Who runs from debates in a democracy during an election campaign? Why not accept the full six clashes with gusto and double-dare Sánchez to see if he backs down? I’ll take your six debates and raise you the location: they must take place in public squares around Spain, or in football stadiums full of voters. The PP knows Sánchez gets booed down and whistled at a lot in public: “he can’t go outsider, but that’s not my problem”, Feijóo said. The ball would then be back in the PM’s court and the conservative leader would look like the stronger democrat.
A six-round polarised slug fest would be draining for voters but would likely generate huge media expectations each week and the next four years of national politics are at stake, so it’s hard to argue it’s a terrible idea. The PSOE put out a statement saying that Sánchez has “accepted” the six debates with Feijóo, after he himself proposed the idea, and that the party had already sent letters to that effect to four media outlets and the PP. “Are they going to accept or hide from that debate?”, socialist spokeswoman Pilar Alegría wondered on TV this morning. Her party was ready for the debates, she added: “we want to take part, we want to explain ourselves, we want to contrast ideas and projects”.
"The proposal is part of the populist escalation Sánchez has plunged himself into since calling an early general election after the debacle on May 28, and there has been zero self-criticism", writes El Mundo. "The volatility of Sánchez's criteria is not strictly new but, on this occasion, it is obvious that the request does not respond so much to democratic excellencxe as to a tactical play in which he belives himself the winner," says ABC. If one of the participants in a conflict surpasses the other in tactics and operations, there might never be a chance for the grand strategies and political values to win the day, I say.
During his radio interview, Feijóo summed up his election manifesto as “getting rid of Sánchez”. While not very specific about what that would mean, he said a new conservative government would ditch Spain’s new transgender legislation, which was only passed in February: “It’s easier to change sex legally than it is to get a driving licence”, he said. It’s a vote winner on the right. “Feijóo says he will repeal the Trans Act and get rid of the Equality Ministry”, replied Irene Montero (Podemos) on Twitter: “it’s not just a reaction to the coalition government, it’s a new attempt to discipline the feminist and LGTBI movement that is at the forefront of the advance in rights around the world”.
Over in what’s left of Ciudadanos, Edmundo Bal is still very angry about the decision not to run at the general election and is suggesting that the party leadership should resign and that the decision be reversed becuase they are still just in time to try. “So, they recognise that the party is no longer viable and have just suffered a massive electoral defeat”, he told The Objective: “and they are still saying they won’t resign, that they are going to put together another convention to renew the ideology. We are not stupid, we are not idiots”.
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Your articles are , as you say in spanish ,la hostia de buenos .
Gracias Matthew