The candidates for the Junta de Andalucía face tonight the first electoral campaign debate on TVE

The main contenders for the presidency of the Junta de Andalucía —Juan Manuel Moreno (PP), María Jesús Montero (PSOE), Manuel Gavira (Vox), Antonio Maíllo (Por Andalucía) and José Ignacio García (Adelante Andalucía)— face this Monday the first electoral debate of the campaign, a decisive encounter in the race towards the elections of May 17.

The debate will be broadcast from 9:45 PM on Canal 24 Horas, La 1 in territorial disconnection in Andalucía, RTVE Play, Radio 5 and RTVE.es, and will be presented by Xabier Fortes and Laura Clavero. It will have an approximate duration of 90 minutes and will be structured into three blocks: economy, social policies and autonomous financing along with pacts and democratic regeneration.

The format arrives after the first days of campaign, marked by political acts, crossed messages and the controversy over the removal of electoral posters in Sevilla. In this context, the candidates will seek to confront management models in a debate that will serve as the first great electoral thermometer. The arrival of the aspirants at the Centro de Producción de RTVE en Andalucía will take place in a staggered manner, from least to greatest parliamentary representation. Adelante Andalucía will be the first to arrive and the last will be the candidate of the PP, Juanma Moreno, scheduled around  21:10 hours.

The campaign teams have prepared the debate with differentiated strategies: the PP relies on territorial proximity and management, the PSOE on the experience of María Jesús Montero and the previous technical work, Por Andalucía has reinforced its internal coordination around Izquierda Unida, and Adelante Andalucía seeks to focus on health, housing, and education. The polls place the PP as the favorite, although without an absolute majority, which opens the possibility of pacts with Vox, an issue that will predictably mark part of the debate along with the situation of public services.

This will be the first of the two debates planned for the campaign, in a context in which there will finally be no face-to-face between Moreno and Montero, something that the socialist candidate has criticized, considering that it responds to the Andalusian president's refusal to directly confront political models.