Madrid, Jul 9 (EFE).- Four days after the start of the electoral campaign for the elections on July 23, the president of the Spanish Government and socialist leader, Pedro Sánchez, and the leader of the conservative Popular Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, will face their first television debate tomorrow, the only one in the entire campaign, as the two possible candidates for the presidency of the Government.
Both politicians will discuss four thematic blocks, including State, institutional and international policies, along with others dedicated to the economy, social policy and equality, and pacts and governability.
Sánchez, who during his five years at the head of the Executive has carried out extensive international activity, will close the block dedicated to this issue and will also open the one on the economy, while Feijóo will be in charge of starting the second and third blocks.
It so happens that the campaign for these elections coincides with important international commitments for Spain, such as the rotating presidency of the European Union, which began on July 1 and will last until December 31.
On campaign days, Sánchez will have to be absent from it to attend international appointments, such as next week, when he will travel to Vilnius for the NATO summit, and the following week, when he will travel to Brussels, where he will will hold the EU-CELAC summit, which will bring together the heads of State or Government of Europe and of Latin America and the Caribbean, and to which Spain has attached great importance due to the special relations it maintains with Latin America.
International issues have been very present on Sánchez’s agenda throughout his government, among other things, due to issues as serious as the war in Ukraine, after the Russian invasion of that country in February 2022.
However, Feijóo, who has developed most of his political career as regional president of Galicia (northeast), lacks international experience and recognizes as one of his pending subjects that he does not know how to speak English, a language in which Sánchez handles himself with looseness.
Tomorrow will be the only time that both leaders meet to oppose their different political programs, despite the fact that Sánchez has shown himself willing to attend all the debates proposed by different media, but Feijóo only accepted this one, organized by the private group Atresmedia .
The debate will have a very closed format, with strict time control, it will be moderated by two journalists and a team will time the interventions of the two candidates so that they are proportional.
The final golden minute will be started by the President of the Government and will be closed by the leader of the PP, as stipulated by lottery.
This face-to-face occurs after intense negotiations between the teams of both parties, and after the refusal of the PP to participate in another four-way debate organized by RTVE (Spanish public television) and which will only be attended by the leaders of the PSOE (Sánchez ), from the left-wing group Sumar (Yolanda Díaz) and the far-right Vox (Santiago Abascal) and which will be held on July 19.
