If an enemy had created the starting point for Miguel Ángel Gallardo’s path to the December 21 elections, it would be difficult for him to accomplish the most difficult things. Prosecuted — defending his innocence — for his role as president of the Diputación de Badajoz in the alleged irregularities in the hiring of Pedro Sánchez’s brother, accused — he is the only one — of having become a deputy in the Regional Assembly in May after being released, the PSOE candidate for president of the Junta de Extremadura became one of the news stories that covered the pages of the first Sunday of the 21-D campaign is management of your party Salazar affairwhich affects the credibility of the entire female electorate, a key for socialists. So that there does not seem to be any move that favors the aspirations of Gallardo, which predicts the worst historical result of the socialists in the community.
How does a campaign unfold in these circumstances? “Talking about the things that matter to extremeños, without allowing them to be used as information guides on subjects that have nothing to do with this territory, as PP and Vox have done,” he responds in conversation with EL PAÍS in front of a refreshment bar in a café near the Zafra fair, where he arrived this Sunday in a market according to the scenario created since the president of extrema, María Guardiola, pressed the electoral button: claiming his profile as an experienced manager, with more than twenty years as mayor of Villanueva de la Serena (Badajoz, 26,000 inhabitants) and president of the Diputación; not entering into controversies imported from “Madrid” and avoiding national controversies – even if it is possible, in the case of Pedro Sánchez’s brother, inevitable in any interview and to which he also responds if he asks –; and do not abuse the formidable resource of Vox, because this could have the collateral effect of a useful vote for Guardiola, the candidate of the People’s Party. “Calling in the middle of Vox in Extremadura is absurd. Guardiola is the friend in the Gobierno. And if it’s because I wanted Vox, not because I wanted the PP. The parties are the same, just that the PP has a face that seems friendlier. We are not against each other, but against the rights,” assures Gallardo.
A legion of alcaldes
With the need to keep in mind all these balances, Gallardo found himself this Sunday at a canutazo in front of the media in a market in Zafra (Badajoz, 16,700 inhabitants) to talk about road auctions and free public transport. Their language is technical, sometimes administrative. His most belligerent message is based on the fact that Guardiola is, in terms of public service management, a follower of the “Ayuso model”, as he proclaims to the media. If there are political experts and strategists who say that today’s campaigns mainly feed on grand epics, polarizing messages, attacks and effective coups, they do not recognize Gallardo, 51, who presents as a guarantee of his years as mayor, he chose a direction for which he also voted. “people with rights”. “I always say it: we must govern for everyone,” he says.
With a score of 3.68 in the CIS against Extremadura – below Guardiola (5.63) and the Unidas candidate for Extremadura, Irene de Miguel (4.1), and only 8 hundredths above the Vox candidate, Óscar Fernández -, Gallardo benefits in exchange from certain assets which his rivals do not have. His party, which has nearly 10,000 activists in Extremadura, emerged from the last municipal elections with 211 villages, compared to 139 for the PP. In addition, governs the Diputaciones, Cáceres and Badajoz. And the Gobierno de España? Is it a sum or is it left? Respond without hesitation to what summarizes, before assuming the investment figures of the Central Executive of Extremadura and recalling that measures such as increasing the minimum wage and pensions have a particularly marked impact on their community.
President Sánchez is expected to return from time to time during the campaign, according to Gallardo’s team. Una, in Cáceres next Sunday; another, on the last day, the 19th, in Villanueva de la Serena, on town of Pueblo Casi where the candidate was born and was mayor of the electoral power. Gallardo will also be in the presence, at the beginning of this week, of the Minister of Economy, the extremeño Carlos Cuerpo, with him who will hold a meeting with businessmen.
This is how Gallardo’s campaign is structured: abundant meetings with collectives, who present concrete proposals, shaped in his program. Nothing feels personal. The PSOE logo is still visible, because all the members of its team are aware that the party, even if it has lost its best moments, retains a strength that must be taken advantage of. This week, a video will be released in an attempt to make the candidate more accessible and relatable, but in an era full of campaigns that exalt the candidate above all else, that is not the case.
Self-criticism
Between piles of axes at 4.95 euros and trinkets at 4.99 euros at home, Gallardo walks at the Zafra market, in the fair, surrounded by activists, distributing roses and bags of nougat in a message: “So that the PP goes home for Christmas”. He’s not a mass idol, but he receives signs of affection and a lady tells him that he cheers her up. There is no one to meet anyone and there are no comments left beforehand by these posts. In an environment marked by anti-politics, this is not the case.
“Han tried to dehumanize me,” he laments in this periodical regarding his refreshment in reference to the accusations made against him by the PP and Vox at the origin of his first accusation and his subsequent trial. He appears convinced of his acquittal during the court to be held in May. He is categorical on this point: “There is nothing”. And you wonder who will repair the current political damage when it comes to light.
Gallardo acknowledges that he was barely halfway to entering the Asamblea, as it was interpreted as an attempt to escape, which is wrong. “Unquestionably, we are wrong. When you don’t understand, you are wrong”, Señala, although he insists that his only objective was to be in Parliament because it is the best platform to explain his “alternative” to María Guardiola. He was “naive”, he asserts, in not calibrating the consequences of a maneuver which had “harmed” him. As long as Salazar affairadmits that he “did harm” to the PSOE, even if he defends that it is “the party of feminism”. “We demand that we never die,” says the secretary general of the PSOE of Extremadura.
Despite the demographic data against him, Gallardo insists that nothing is written and says he will get “a good result.” What is a good result? “Ganar,” he replies. It would be a monumental surprise if the PSOE was the party with the most votes. If in 2023 the party reached 40%, now the CEI is offering 31.6%. But this is an election campaign, and in this campaign, even the candidates less inclined to grandiloquence are elevated from the top.
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