The spokesperson for the PSOE's Federal Executive, Montse Mínguez, asked the president of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, this Monday to disavow the words of the leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, and the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, after both questioned postal voting, which can be requested starting this Tuesday for the snap general elections on November 29.
From the doors of the PSOE headquarters in Ferraz (Madrid), before participating in the meeting of the party's Federal Executive Committee, Mínguez maintained that the statements by both leaders are especially serious, considering that they cast doubt on democratic functioning and citizens' right to vote.
"Ms. Ayuso and Mr. Abascal have already come out questioning our democratic system, they have criticized postal voting, they have urged people not even to vote, and from here we find it extremely serious and we ask Mr. Feijóo to disavow these statements," the socialist leader affirmed.
Patxi López and Pilar Alegría raise the tone against the PP
In the same vein, the PSOE spokesperson in Congress, Patxi López, described the words of the Madrid president as "anti-democratic" and questioned the reaction of those who have been asking for elections "from minute one."
"Maybe they didn't want them that much, more than just lip service, because we have seen how Ayuso told people not to vote by mail, which seems absolutely anti-democratic to me, to question the electoral system in possibly the most guaranteeing and safest country in the world, it's not just Trumpism, but it's anti-democratic," López pointed out. The socialist leader also criticized Alberto Núñez Feijóo for, in his opinion, comparing the current situation with Francoism and maintaining that "these elections are like those of 50 years ago."
For her part, the general secretary of PSOE Aragón, Pilar Alegría, stated that questioning the legitimate functioning of institutions "says a lot and nothing good about the president of the Community of Madrid."
"Don't even think about voting by mail": Ayuso questions the electoral process
The president of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, questioned the fairness of the electoral process just minutes after Pedro Sánchez announced the November 29 elections. During a New Economy Forum breakfast, Ayuso directly asked citizens "not even to think about voting by mail" and warned of a possible "adulteration" of the censuses, although she did not present evidence of widespread electoral fraud. The PP leader even anticipated that the campaign would be "the dirtiest and most excessive" and stated that the Government "will look for new lures, with tricks, to see what they come up with."
In this context, she linked her suspicions to the growth of the census derived from the so-called grandchildren's law and the regularization of migrants, assuring that the PSOE intended to "decide where each elector went." The popular leader has also hardened her discourse against Sánchez to the maximum. After ironically stating that "Maduro also calls elections," Ayuso questioned the democratic condition of the president: "He is not," she declared. She then defined the head of the Executive as "a cancer that has eaten away everything," the "most amoral" president Spain has had, and a "curse."
Ayuso also maintains that Sánchez has not promoted "a single state policy commensurate with the times" and accuses him of using power to protect his family and political circle from corruption cases. These are accusations made by the Madrid president as part of her political offensive against the Government.
Abascal joins Ayuso
The leader of the far-right Vox, Santiago Abascal, has warned of an alleged electoral "manipulation" by Pedro Sánchez and has asked Spaniards not to resort to postal voting in the November 29 elections. "Vote at the ballot box, because right now I absolutely do not trust anything Pedro Sánchez might do," the Vox leader affirmed, without providing evidence of a risk of manipulation of the process.
In a later statement, Abascal further raised the tone by assuring that the President of the Government "is capable of absolutely anything," including the possibility of "manipulating this electoral process," and demanded "free elections, clean elections, and elections without violence." The Vox leader also warned that some sectors would try to prevent his party from campaigning on equal terms and spoke of "their militias, those of Trampolín beach and many others," referring to those who, according to his version, could hinder Vox's activity.
