In Madrid Region Vote Campaign, PM Takes Centre Stage

Madrid, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Apr, 2021 ) :The snap election in the Madrid region, which will take place on May 4, was called last month by regional leader Isabel Diaz Ayuso, a rising star of the right-wing Popular Party (PP), after breaking up her ruling coalition with the centrist Ciudadanos.

At stake is leadership of Spain's wealthiest region but the vote could also have national ramifications, with the battle dominating headlines for weeks before the campaign formally opened on April 18.

In a sign of the ballot's importance, Pablo Iglesias, leader of far-left Podemos, stepped down as a deputy prime minister in Sanchez's coalition government to run as the party's candidate.

"More than a just region is at stake," said University of Zaragoza political scientist Cristina Monge.

"It's also the party leaders taking part, the issues and the media coverage all of which evokes a national election campaign." Ever since the poll was announced, Sanchez has joined a weekly rally in Madrid alongside Socialist candidate Angel Gabilondo, a dour former education minister.

With the Socialists unlikely to oust the PP from power, Sanchez has focused on warning voters against the "threat" posed by Vox, the far-right faction which propped up Ayuso's previous government and looking to make further inroads next week.

Polls show the PP, which has run the region for over 25 years, winning most seats but falling short of an absolute majority, meaning it will likely fall back on the support of Vox to govern.

- 'Freedom' - Pablo Simon, a political analyst at Madrid's Carlos III University, said Sanchez's involvement could be "a double-edged sword" in that it "doesn't necessarily mobilise the left but definitely mobilises voters on the right" who fiercely oppose his leftist government.

And Ayuso has made criticism of Sanchez's handling of the pandemic a focus of her campaign, prompting Gabilondo to remind her last week that he was actually the party's candidate.

Adopting "freedom" as her slogan, she has consistently fought the Sanchez government's instructions, instead imposing one of Spain's loosest curfews and defying recommendations to shut bars and restaurants.

"Ayuso benefits from her strong opposition to the Spanish government over the coronavirus issue, which favours the PP" in this vote, said Antonio Barroso of Teneo consultants.

But Sanchez will have to pay the price for getting personally involved in the campaign, analysts warn.

If the PP gains further ground in Madrid, it will take advantage of that on the national political scene where it serves as Spain's main opposition -- and will "hold him responsible", Simon said.

But Barroso said a victory for Ayuso after running such a hardline campaign could open an "internal fracture" within the PP which has become more centrist in recent months under current leader Pablo Casado.

Such a fracture "could favour Sanchez", making him appear like "a moderate" to centrist voters, Barroso said.