The European campaign starts with PP and PSOE measuring their strength in their first national event after the general elections

Vox seeks to double its representation, Sumar aspires to recover electoral support and Podemos faces a momentous event for its future

MADRID, 22 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The PP and the PSOE face the electoral campaign for the European elections on June 9, which starts this Thursday night, with the aim of measuring forces in their first appointment with polls throughout Spain since the general elections of July 23, last year. After the successive regional elections in Galicia, the Basque Country and Catalonia, these European Parliament elections close an electoral cycle that, a priori, will not be reopened for another two years.

Vox, for its part, seeks to ratify the rise given to it by the polls and double its representation in Strasbourg, while Sumar faces the European elections as an opportunity to recover electoral support, after the poor results in Galicia and Euskadi in addition to the decline in Catalonia. And Podemos faces a momentous event to try to rearm itself, on the tenth anniversary of its emergence onto the political scene.

The leader of the PP, who will open the European campaign in Barcelona this Thursday, with the traditional hanging of posters together with his candidate for the European Parliament, Dolors Montserrat, aspires to be the leading force in these elections, after winning five years ago the PSOE with 20 seats, eight more than the PP (which later added one more after Brexit).

After the victory of the PSC in the Catalan elections – in which the socialists fished in the barn of parties further to the left – the ‘popular’ have lowered expectations, aware that the same may happen in the European elections. “Sánchez may have a bag of votes because his partners are stamping themselves,” ‘popular’ sources have indicated to Europa Press.

Of course, in ‘Génova’ they warn that the PSOE is leaving the center free, given that the PSOE is “listening” towards more radical positions to fish in the fishing grounds of Sumar or Podemos. For this reason, and before what may be the last turnout of Ciudadanos, Feijóo will dedicate his European campaign to appealing to that centrist voter who is “dissatisfied” with Sánchez’s policies, so that June 9 is the “prelude to change.” ” in Spain, according to training sources.

Feijóo considers that the European elections are an opportunity for Spaniards to express themselves about what is happening in Spain, with “a Government that censors, that massively attacks the rule of law and that only listens to itself.” “I ask you for maximum mobilization. We have to make our voice heard: Loud, clear and clean. We want and must send a message in Europe against Sánchez’s excesses,” he asked before the Executive Committee of the PP a week ago.

For now, the PP wants to make a show of force this Sunday in the mobilization that the PP has organized in Puerta de Alcalá against the Government of Pedro Sánchez, with the amnesty as a backdrop. There he will be accompanied by the regional presidents of the PP and by the former presidents of the Government, José María Aznar and Mariano Rajoy.

For its part, the PSOE will try to once again be the most voted force in the European elections, despite the fact that the majority of surveys place it in second position at a certain distance from the PP, with a speech warning about the rise of the extreme right and trying to exploit the ‘green’ profile of the head of the list, the third vice president, Teresa Ribera.

The socialists also present these elections as a “plebiscite” for Feijóo’s leadership, who consider that his future at the head of the party is at stake in these elections since he did not manage to be president of the Government after the general elections of 23J.

At Ferraz they are aware that they must mobilize their electorate and to achieve this they have designed a campaign with more than 800 events in which they intend to involve the entire party, from the candidates for MEPs to the general secretary and president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, who will participate in five events in total, including the opening and closing.

For its part, Vox faces the election campaign with favorable prospects, since polls predict that it will double its representation in the European Parliament. These elections come after the regional elections in the Basque Country and Catalonia, where Vox held out in seats and improved in votes, so the party is very satisfied.

The leader of Vox in Brussels, Jorge Buxadé, repeats as head of the list in the June 9 elections, accompanied by the current MEP Hermann Tertsch and the former leader of Ciudadanos Juan Carlos Girauta.

The campaign begins after the Europa Viva 24 convention, which Vox held to mark the starting signal for the European pre-campaign. Those of Santiago Abascal intended to show muscle to stimulate their voters and show off their international alliances, with prominent figures in their space such as Viktor Orban, Marinne Le Pen, Mateusz Morawiecki or Giorgia Meloni.

Vox has planned a campaign in which it intends to exploit issues that are basic to them, such as respect for national sovereignty in Brussels, opposition to the Green Deal and the 2030 Agenda or the shielding of borders to prevent illegal immigration. Sources from the Vox management indicate that they hope to capture the vote of working-class neighborhoods and low-income people and overcome the high abstention that, they estimate, there will be on election day.

In the space of the state alternative left to the PSOE, which in 2019 won six seats in the European Parliament, Sumar views these elections as an opportunity to regain electoral support, after the poor results in Galicia and Euskadi in addition to the decline in Catalonia.

Proof of this is that its leader, second vice president Yolanda Díaz, will devote herself to a dozen campaign events to support her 9-J candidate, Estrella Galán.

One of his main campaign lines will be to appeal to the leftist bases to emulate the mobilization that occurred in the last general elections of 23J, aware that these elections also have an important national key.

In the minority partner of the coalition, they have designed a campaign strategy with high ideological content to highlight the exceptional nature of the coalition Government in Europe, claiming before the electorate to be the “engine” of the Executive by promoting the main social advances.

Thus, although they are clear that their only rival is to confront only PP and especially Vox, Sumar will also strive to differentiate itself from the PSOE, which they claim has a more conservative position in Europe and aligns itself with the popular parties on fiscal and immigration matters. Its head of the list, Estrella Galán, even spoke of a “grand coalition” of both forces in the European Parliament. Other keys will be to champion ‘green’ and ‘laborismo’ policies.

For its part, Podemos faces the transcendental European elections for its future, which coincide with the tenth anniversary of its emergence onto the political scene and is the main bet of the purple formation to rearm itself after the schism with Sumar.

He will face these elections with the former Minister of Equality Irene Montero as a candidate, one of his main references, and he faces with optimism a campaign that they have been preparing for months, where they are going to pour all the resources of their organization.

In contrast to the head of the list of Sumar, the purple ones consider that the high knowledge of Montero by the voters will be a decisive factor and favors them to reach their expectations, which are to obtain two seats.