The Popular Party accepted this Monday that the Television Academy organize the electoral debates on November 29. The party communicated its decision after its general secretary, Miguel Tellado, spoke by phone with the PSOE campaign spokesperson, Rebeca Torró, without reaching an agreement on which channels should be in charge of the meetings. The PP has already informed the president of the Academy, María Casado, of its willingness to meet "as soon as possible and start negotiating the terms of the meeting."
In that conversation, Tellado defended that Atresmedia and Mediaset be in charge of the two debates that, according to popular sources, both groups formally requested almost a month ago. The PP's proposal placed the face-to-face between Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Pedro Sánchez on November 16 and a second meeting, with four or five candidates, on the 26th, in the final stretch of the campaign. Those were the dates proposed by the popular party and remain pending negotiation.
Sources from the PP accuse Torró of "vetoing private communication groups" and maintain that the socialist spokesperson was also not in favor of including Podemos in the second debate. Despite these discrepancies, the party has accepted that the Academy be in charge of the meetings "with the participation in the design of the campaign directorates of the different political parties."
The PSOE proposed the Academy as an alternative if the PP rejected RTVE
The position that the PSOE had conveyed this Monday was to hold one debate on RTVE and another in a private group. The socialists asked the PP to accept at least one of the two formats offered by public television: the face-to-face between Sánchez and Feijóo or a four-way debate. "Debating without exclusivity and without excluding any television, especially public television, remains an unrenounceable principle," the party maintains.
If the PP maintained its refusal for RTVE to organize one of the meetings, the PSOE proposed entrusting both debates to the Television Academy. According to the socialists, this route would allow offering a neutral and open signal so that all interested media could broadcast them.
Podemos supports the formula and demands a place for Irene Montero
"We think it's the best option," say sources from Podemos, who offer to "participate, starting tomorrow," in the preparations. The party demands that both Irene Montero and Frente Amplio be present in the plural debate and considers that the Academy's intervention "opens the door for Irene Montero to participate."
