Sánchez warns the undecided that voting for the PP means putting Vox in the Government of Aragón | Spain

Pedro Sánchez has dedicated his main message of the PSOE event in the Aragon campaign to the undecided and less ideologized voters who are thinking of voting for the PP so that it depends at least on Vox. The polls predict a victory for the popular party far from the absolute majority and with a grown Vox similar to that of Extremadura. “There’s so much going on, there’s so much going on between the right and the extreme right. Voting for the PP means putting Vox within the Government of Aragon,” warned the President of the Government, who at the beginning of his speech at the central PSOE rally in Teruel was insulted by a woman who yelled at him “son of a bitch!” “We already know perfectly well that those who insult are those who have no arguments or offer anything to their societies,” Sánchez reacted, after she had been evicted. “As we have seen, Aragón does not need the insults, nor the arrogance of Jorge Azcón, nor the misogyny, nor the hatred of Santiago Abascal,” he stressed after the incident.

The woman who insulted Sánchez is a PP councilor from a town in Valencia, Vallanca (128 inhabitants), Belén Navarro Cañete. Hours later, Navarro herself sent a text to her party in which she apologized. “I spontaneously uttered some words that I should not have said. They were inappropriate and do not live up to the respect that should govern the political debate. I want to expressly apologize to the Popular Party, its affiliates and sympathizers, for the damage that these words may have caused to the image of the organization. Political criticism is legitimate; the insult is not,” the councilor says in the text.

La Moncloa later insisted on condemning this action and highlighted that “naturalizing violence in public debate is inadmissible.” Official government sources also highlighted that “every minute that passes without the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijoo, publicly condemning him makes him even more complicit in what happened and certifies his waning leadership.” “Insults have no place in democracy. They are the only recourse of those who do not believe in it. For this reason, we demand that the PP condemn, immediately and without nuance, the verbal attack launched by a PP councilor to the President of the Government,” they added. The PSOE spoke along the same lines.

The Aragonese president has called for the first time in the community, so unprecedented that the regional elections will be separated from the municipal elections, with the impact that it may have on the drop in participation. The demobilization of the progressive electorate is the main challenge for the socialists, who according to polls risk a sharp decline in the Cortes. “We have one week left in the electoral campaign, let’s take advantage of every day, every moment, every place, in 2019 we won and I beat Jorge Azcón – in the Zaragoza City Council elections, where Albert Rivera prevented Alegría from being mayor after blocking the pact that the socialist had already closed with the Ciudadanos councilors – and on February 8 we are going to win Azcón again. We are going to do it with desire, mobilization, hope and with joy!” the candidate urged.

Like Sánchez, Alegría has insisted to moderate voters who hesitate between the PSOE and the PP that they do not vote to the right, thinking that it is the remedy for Vox not having so much influence in a future regional Executive. “I ask that no one stay at home and that no one make a mistake. Anyone who believes that voting for Azcón is the best way to ensure that there is no far-right government is wrong. Because the PP is not its containment dam, it opens the doors wide for it. The only ballot that can stop a right-wing and far-right government is that of the PSOE,” he reiterated.

The president and the candidate have entered the rally with a theme composed in just four days to protest against ICE, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service, and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, shot to death by law enforcement. “The question that must be asked in Aragón is if what you do not want for the world, you want for Europe, for Spain and for Aragón. Do you need another argument, another reason to vote for Alegría and the PSOE?”, he demanded before a thousand militants and sympathizers.

“Vox pulls the halter and the PP goes there. They say one thing and the opposite based on Vox. They approve Mercosur in Brussels and they come here and ask please that the agreement not be applied. Vox is not understood either: they say they defend the primary sector, but then what they do is remain silent like lackeys when the one in charge, the one on the other side of the Atlantic, imposes tariffs on the European and Spanish economies,” he attacked. The PSOE is convinced that the reaction to Trumpist policies will activate its electorate.

Sánchez has committed to approving the revaluation of pensions, which Congress overturned this week with the PP or Junts arguing that it was part of an omnibus decree with other measures, after blaming Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s party for its rejection, a very sensitive issue in a country with more than ten million pensioners. “I don’t understand anything about the PP, what problem do they have with the minimum vital income or with the electric social bonus? But when they are told that the military spending requested by the president of the United States for NATO must be increased by 5%, well they say yes,” he responded, once again giving as an example the silence of the right to Trump’s demands, which the Government of Spain has refused. “Mariano Rajoy was there for seven years and for four years they froze the pensions and for three years they revalued them according to the CPI, which rose to 0.25%. I tell the retirees that the pensions are going to be revalued yes or yes, with or without the PP, as we have done over the last seven years, that is my commitment and we are going to fulfill it,” Sánchez stressed.—