In an orphan campaign, by the decision of Juan Manuel Moreno himself, of national or regional PP leaders, only its president, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has set foot in Andalusian territory in this first week – “to achieve greater reach and impact in such an extensive community,” according to the candidate for the Junta. This Sunday is the first time they have coincided, at the central event of the race towards San Telmo, which has been marked by an unexpected event, the death in service last Friday of two civil guards in Huelva, while pursuing a drug trafficking boat, which has changed the campaign script. Instead of the usual slogans, such as stability or the hassle of making pacts with Vox, of not returning to a socialist past that has nothing to do with the economic growth achieved in the last seven years, or of claiming the improvement of public services despite opposition hoaxes, this midday rally has been marked by criticism of Sánchez’s Government security policies and the demand that political responsibilities be assumed. “It is very painful to see how the civil guards have to grit their teeth when they see drug traffickers entering ports or boats docked because they do not have sufficient resources. That degrades the State, it degrades us as a country,” said the Andalusian president.
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If on Saturday Moreno wanted to adopt restraint after attending the funeral for the two agents who died in Huelva, where he demanded more resources but made it clear that it was not the day or moment to address that issue, his party leader did directly point to the Interior Minister, Fernando Grande Marlaska, to call for his resignation. This Sunday, the president of the Junta has opted to go further and has questioned the absence of Government representatives at the highest level at the funeral. “When two public servants lose their lives in the line of duty, the moral and functional obligation is to be by the victims’ side, that there is no minister insensitive to the pain of those colleagues.”
Feijóo had also reproached in his previous speech that neither the Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, “nor Sánchez had the decency to attend to offer condolences to the families.” “A little empathy and respect towards the victims,” emphasized the national PP leader, who reproached that Marlaska has not apologized either for the death of the two colleagues run over by a drug trafficking boat two years ago in Barbate. “Something so serious deserves responsibilities at the highest level,” he insisted.
Marlaska did not attend the funeral in Huelva because he was in Granadilla (Tenerife) overseeing the operation of the arrival of the cruise ship MV Hondius, affected by a hantavirus outbreak and the evacuation of Spaniards on board. Neither of the two popular leaders referred to this health crisis in their speeches.
Moreno has called for a change in the Penal Code so that criminal behaviors that are currently not typified can be prosecuted and has drawn attention to the expansion of drug trafficking in the community in recent years, coinciding with the dismantling of OCON-Sur, the elite unit of the Civil Guard dedicated to fighting drug entry through the Strait. “In these eight years, before there was one point where they wanted to enter, before they came through the province of Cádiz, but now they are from Pulpí to Ayamonte, 900 km where drug trafficking runs rampant,” said the popular leader who has demanded more resources from Feijóo, for when he becomes president. He has committed to “being the ally” of the Civil Guard and the National Police in the next legislature, to offer them “the best conditions and the greatest resources” to do their work.
So far, Vox has been the only party that has used the tragedy in Huelva waters to attack the central Government, in the usual hyperbolic tone of the far right. The ultra party seeks to mobilize part of its electorate with this discourse – which even calls for killing drug traffickers instead of arresting them – something the PP is aware of, but which, according to various sources consulted, they believe does not harm them in their fight to secure the seats that hang by a thread in certain provinces – the constituencies where they retain or lose a deputy also vary – but may even benefit them to retain the more moderate voter, uncomfortable with the extreme argument of Santiago Abascal’s party.
What does worry in this last week of the campaign is the overconfidence given by the polls. The PP, as Moreno himself has recalled, is used to considering elections won just because of good poll results. It happened to them in Andalusia in 2012, when Javier Arenas considered victory certain, and lost the presidency due to last-minute mobilization of left-wing voters. Almost similar to what Feijóo himself experienced in July 2023, where no polling house predicted that he would not be able to govern.
The PP campaign team does not currently see a mobilization of the socialist electorate like then, but does see a “contained” growth of Vox, which could finally tip those seats hanging by a thread. That is why the two popular leaders have called on their supporters to vote next Sunday and to campaign among their own. “We are doing well, it is heard, seen, felt, there is enthusiasm. But enthusiasm must be turned into votes. Enthusiasm, hope, and affection must be turned into votes,” Feijóo cheered.
The midday rally, where Moreno heard the 6,000 attendees who filled the Carranque municipal pavilion interrupt Feijóo with shouts of: “Juanma president!”, is part of the conventional campaign that the PP is deploying, in which it alternates events of this type with meetings with different economic sectors of the community, walks through cities, and attendance at popular festivals. But their party is also developing another campaign, through social networks with greater reach – as the Andalusian president himself acknowledged this Friday. Their campaign song video, Kilómetro Sur, which today all attendees sitting behind the podium wore on T-shirts with the Spotify download QR printed, has generated expectation – driven by the popular candidate’s own team – about whether the one performing it is Moreno himself – “Juanma does everything well, even singing,” Feijóo said. Another video spread on social media in which bar customers talk about what Moreno (not the PP) has done for Andalusia during this time, inspired by Life of Brian by Monty Python, has also had an impact. Both were shown on the screens surrounding the rally attendees. They did not show the Chewbacca one, but the cow remains.
