Sánchez issued this warning in his speech at the closing campaign rally of the Socialist candidate for the Presidency of the Community of Madrid, Ángel Gabilondo, in which he once again avoided direct confrontation with Isabel Díaz Ayuso, of whom he did not even name.
On the third occasion that he has accompanied Gabilondo at a rally in the fifteen days of the campaign, the PSOE leader has focused his message on the need to put an end to 26 years of PP governments in Madrid in order to leave behind policies that he considers have not taken into account the most disadvantaged.
He also urged that the PSOE ballot paper should be put in the ballot box as a recipe against the corruption represented by the Partido Popular, which he believes has been demonstrated by “seeing presidents of the community parading around stealing with both hands”. “That, if it does anything, it only weakens the foundations of democracy”, he added, before warning of the risk that a pact between the PP and Vox also poses for the democratic system.
He regretted that this pact closed the way to Gabilondo two years ago despite the fact he won the elections in the Community of Madrid, and this is the pact that he said Pablo Casado’s party is willing to close again after May 4. “The PP announces that it is going to make a pact with the xenophobic, sexist and homophobic ultra-right and also says that it is not the end of the world. It will not be the end of the world, but it could be the beginning of the end of a vigorous democracy, brimming with rights and freedoms in Madrid, which the very presence of the far right in government puts at risk”.
Sánchez contrasted the PP’s willingness to make a pact with the far-right with the refusal of German Chancellor Angela Merkel to do so, even though it would mean that she would not be able to govern in some regions.
Without quoting Ayuso directly, he stressed that the Community of Madrid cannot continue to be divided or systematically confronted with the central government and neighbouring regional governments, regardless of which party they belong to. For all these reasons, he insisted on the need for change to reverse everything that has been done by the right wing over 26 years and to do so in a timely manner, the same way the president of the United States, Joe Biden, is acting after what has been inherited from Donald Trump.
The president of the PP, Pablo Casado, has called this Sunday to unite the vote in the Popular Party as “the only vaccine against Sanchezism” and, at the closing of the campaign of Isabel Díaz Ayuso for the Madrid elections on May 4, he has assured that next week “everything begins”.
Casado has spoken at the closing rally in Madrid Río, an esplanade that has been filled with thousands of PP supporters, two thousand in a cordoned off area, with chairs and social distancing, while hundreds gather outside in a festive and musical atmosphere reminiscent of the times before the pandemic.
The leader of the PP has asked for the support of the voters of new parties of the centre-right. Without naming either Vox or Ciudadanos, he assured that it is the PP that best defends security and the unity of Spain; also the party that fights against corruption and creates employment. In addition, he appealed to left-wing voters disappointed with the government of Pedro Sánchez and even to the young people of 15-M, a citizens’ movement that is celebrating its first decade.
“We are going to go out to win, to achieve a government in freedom, with free hands, with clean hands, with white hands, with all our hands, tightly together, we will change the future of Spain”, exclaimed Casado, who predicted that Ayuso’s victory on May 4 will show that there is an “alternative”.
Casado has charged against the President of the Government, of whom he said that with the motions of censure presented in autonomous communities such as Murcia “he attempted to do the same thing that brought him to power: enter through the back door, because they do not know how to play fairly in democracy”.
In addition, he criticised Sánchez’s pact with Bildu, he has launched cheers for “free Venezuela”, “free Cuba” and has charged against those who have “advised and have profited” from “totalitarian regimes”. Casado called for harmony and a “Spain in colour” as opposed to division, the unity of Spain, the free choice of school and criticised the “Tax Axe” on the “most humble contributors”.
The president of the Madrid Partido Popular, Pío García Escudero, and the mayor of Madrid and national spokesman for the PP, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, also spoke at the event.
Almeida has accused Sánchez of running a dirty campaign in Madrid and predicted an “electoral catastrophe” for the PSOE, with the PP doubling the Socialists, who for the first time will fall, according to Almeida, from 30 seats. “Pedro, take note, Pedro, take note,” he exclaimed. “What a surprise they are going to get in Galapagar”, Almeida ironically references the United Podemos candidate, Pablo Iglesias, of whom he said “no one has done better in politics in recent years, nor has anyone made so much money”.
Hundreds of PP supporters filled the Puente del Rey, where a DJ played reggaeton, songs from La Movida and others that allude to freedom, such as songs by Nino Bravo and Freddy Mercury. The rally was attended, amidst ovations, by leaders such as the secretary general of the PP, Teodoro García Egea, and deputy secretaries such as Pablo Montesinos; also the former deputy of Cs Toni Cantó, now a member of the PP, and the former president of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre.