Pedro Sánchez and Alberto Núñez Feijóo will debate face-to-face on Thursday, November 19, ten days before the general elections on 29N. The Television Academy announced this Friday that its president, journalist María Casado, will moderate the encounter between the PSOE candidate and the PP candidate. The debate will be held at studio A of Madrid Content City, in Tres Cantos.
Housing will open the debate, just one week after the Congress's Permanent Deputation validated the decree that extends rental contracts and limits their increases. The PSOE and PP teams have agreed that afterward, they will discuss economy and taxes, social policies and public services, the fight against corruption and democratic regeneration, and migration and foreign policy. The draw has given Feijóo the first intervention and Sánchez the last.
The Academy will produce a common signal that interested television channels can broadcast. This Friday's announcement leaves the start time and the list of channels that will broadcast it to be specified. Casado has presided over the institution since 2018 and hosted 'Los desayunos de TVE' for four seasons, where she interviewed the main political leaders.
The Academy's choice has unblocked several weeks of disagreement over who should organize the debates. Mediaset, Atresmedia, and Radio Televisión Española (RTVE) had offered their studios. The PP opted for private groups and rejected RTVE organizing one of the encounters. The PSOE, which requested at least one to be held on public television, proposed resorting to the Academy so that any channel could broadcast them. The PP accepted this formula on Monday, and the face-to-face ended up on Thursday the 19th after Monday the 16th was initially considered.
The holding of a plural debate remains pending
The second candidate debate is still pending consultation with the Central Electoral Board regarding Irene Montero's participation. The initial format brought together Sánchez, Feijóo, Santiago Abascal, from the far-right Vox, and Ada Colau, from Frente Amplio. Montero assures that the Academy invited Podemos to the preparations and accuses the PSOE and Frente Amplio of trying to leave her out. Socialist sources consulted by ElConstitucional.es deny that they will veto Podemos and refer the decision to whoever is responsible. The consultation refers to that second encounter.
While it is being decided who will occupy that possible fifth lectern, RTVE has already set its spokespersons' debate for Monday, November 23, at 10:00 p.m. Xabier Fortes will moderate the meeting between eight political parties in Prado del Rey, broadcast on La 1, Canal 24 Horas, and RTVE Play, among other channels. LaSexta opens its debate programming this Friday at 9:30 p.m. with Ana Pastor leading a discussion on housing and economy between Carlos Cuerpo, Juan Bravo, Pablo Bustinduy, and José María Figaredo.
The precedent of 23J left a difficult figure to match. The only face-to-face debate between Sánchez and Feijóo in 2023 gathered an average of 5,910,000 viewers and a 46.5% share between Antena 3 and laSexta. It was on July 10, with Ana Pastor and Vicente Vallés as moderators. Interruptions marked a debate in which Sánchez reproached Feijóo for the PP's regional pacts with Vox, and the popular leader proposed that the least voted party abstain to facilitate the investiture of the winner. The two also clashed over pensions, the economy, and the "only yes means yes" law.
Nine days later, Feijóo declined to attend the final RTVE debate. The four-way event that public television had planned took place on July 19 with Pedro Sánchez, Yolanda Díaz, and Santiago Abascal, four days before the polls.
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