If democracy, a second and final electoral debate was held at the last minute in Mérida, framed within the Extremaduran elections that will be held this Sunday. “Don’t let them steal our democracy,” said the president of the Extremadura Regional Government and candidate for re-election for the PP, María Guardiola, during the morning after two days absent from events. All for a theft of 124 votes at the Post Office headquarters in a town of 4,500 residents in Badajoz. Some facts that the Civil Guard investigates as a common robbery and that will not prevent injured voters from exercising their right again.
Hours after this robbery, this debate was held at the RTVE headquarters in Extremadura, where the PP has refused to participate along with the rest of the parties: PSOE, Unidas Podemos and Vox. The journalist and moderator Xabier Fortes has explained Guardiola’s refusal looking at the camera with a final reflection:
—You judge.
On a blue set and three gray lecterns, the candidates have been positioned in a strange way, judging by the ideology. In the center, Óscar Fernández, from Vox. On the left, the socialist Miguel Ángel Gallardo; and to the right, Irene de Miguel, from Unidas por Extremadura. The progressive bloc has focused a large part of its interventions. Vox has decided to pass by, on tiptoe, without clarifying whether it will agree again with the PP as in 2023. So much so, that the party’s spokesperson in the Senate, Ángel Pelayo Gordillo, also from Extremadura, has highlighted this issue at the end of the debate during an assessment to the media: “We have not seen Mrs. Guardiola. This is the first reflection.”
It has barely been mentioned. Only candidate De Miguel, from Unidas por Extremadura, has been ironic about this matter. Divided into three blocks, perhaps the moment of the debate has been the puncture that this formation has delivered to the PSOE. A blow so unexpected that the candidate has remained silent for a few seconds: “He fled from justice,” he reproached Gallardo, in relation to his capacity in the Assembly after the investigation opened against him by the justice system, in a case being investigated by an alleged suspect during his time at the head of the Badajoz Provincial Council. Gallardo, visibly uncomfortable, replied:
-It isn’t true.
—That day he wanted to be the child at the baptism.
And, as if that were not enough, he has questioned his candidacy in the event that the result on Sunday gives the progressive bloc the winner. “The PSOE deserves deep reflection to reach an agreement.” Party sources have later clarified that this “deep reflection” consists of asking for Gallardo’s head and for him not to be the candidate to preside over the Junta of Extremadura in the event that the progressive bloc gains a majority. This premise, however, is a scenario that is not contemplated by any survey.
The rest of the debate has been a struggle between Unidas por Extremadura and PSOE against Vox. De Miguel has labeled the far-right candidate as “government spokesperson”, in a clear allusion to the PP and Vox pact. Gallardo has reproached Santiago Abascal’s electoral poster in the region, Óscar Fernández, who in his opinion was seeking tension. “He has no proposals,” he insisted. Fernández has also pointed out the judicial case of Gallardo, whom he has wished to end up in jail. The socialist candidate, once again upset, blurted out:
—In democracy their misfortune is that they cannot give us the coup de grace.
There have also been proposals. Gallardo has announced that education will be free from zero to three years and that he will guarantee primary care in 48 hours. United for Extremadura has guaranteed the protection of Extremadura’s public university, marked by the arrival of the first private university in the region in the coming months. Vox has been the only candidate who has remembered Sánchez, whom he has called “corrupt” and has opted for agriculture and livestock to end “the green pact.” To which De Miguel, from Unidas por Extremadura, asked:
—And what is the green pact?
—What ruins.
At the end of the debate, which lasted 75 minutes, the candidates said goodbye to their golden minute with winks to the people of Extremadura. The socialist candidate has defended public health and public education: “The PP has put Extremadura at the worst level.” Vox has spoken of the “PP scam or socialist corruption” and has promised to reduce taxes. And De Miguel, the last to close, has once again winked at the PSOE voter, after her jab at Gallardo: “If you know who to vote for or you are going to vote with a tweezer, I ask you to borrow your vote. I want you to give yourself a treat and vote for a progressive force that is feminist.” Of Guardiola, this time and like his presence in the debate, no trace.
