The General Secretary of the Partido Popular, Miguel Tellado, has defended this Sunday in Logroño that "these elections are not about the PP beating the PSOE, but about Spain defeating Sánchez", insisting that the 29N elections "are the most important since the Transition, between the demolition of our democracy or a new stage of national reconstruction".
Tellado has taken part in a pre-campaign rally in the Rioja capital, accompanied by the head of the list to Congress for La Rioja, Cuca Gamarra; the number two, Alberto Galiana; the mayor of Logroño, Conrado Escobar; and the regional president, Gonzalo Capellán, along with other party officials and supporters. At the start of his remarks, he has wanted to expressly thank the candidates for their involvement: to Galiana, until now the Minister of Education, for "taking the step, getting out of his comfort zone"; to Carlos Yécora, for "always being there, lending a shoulder and traveling around Spain, being the vanguard"; to the number 1 to the Senate, Javier Merino, "working shoulder to shoulder with Borja Sémper"; and, in a special way, to Cuca Gamarra, with whom he has said that "we have shared four years of effort, commitment, misfortunes and successes, which have turned us into good friends".
At another point in his speech, the Popular Party leader has stated that "Spain is in shock, wounded, endangered and broken" because of the victims of the railway disaster in Urda, recalling "that mother, that son, that husband, that wife, who have spent hours plunged in anguish at not knowing and then, in the pain of having lost". He has emphasized that "that is the ordeal that concerns us and not that of Puente", and he has denounced that "there is no right for there to be orphan children today, no right for there to be parents burying their children, no right for a country like Spain to have suffered two fatal accidents on the same line within nine months, no right for there to be more than one hundred dead on high-speed rail".
Tellado has reproached Pedro Sánchez for saying that "he will not go on Tuesday to the State funeral for the victims of Urda", recalling that "he also did not go to the State funeral for those from Adamuz, and not because on that day and at that time he will be recording a 'podcast'; that is his frivolity, his lack of respect and his shamelessness". In his view, "and that is something he has to pay for at the ballot box". From this criticism, he has argued that Sánchez "is a president who does not represent our country", and he has set against it that "the Spain that makes an effort, paying, paying and paying, while the Sánchez Government steals, stealing and stealing, is the government that squeezes citizens' wallets the most and makes the worst use of that public money, because everything that depends on the central Government is worse, or it has squandered it or has stolen money from Spaniards".
In the realm of corruption, he has stressed that "this week the driver of the primaries has fallen to corruption", lamenting that "I wish Sánchez's corruption were only the affair of the Peugeot crew, but they arrived like a transatlantic ship that got into every institution, corrupting absolutely everything". He has joked that "but now at Corvillo they didn't know him for anything. It's the same pattern as always; they did it with Ábalos, with Koldo, with Cerdá, and one day he'll say who that Begoña is that I hear about. They have turned Ali Baba into a mere amateur, because Ali Baba had 40 thieves, and Sánchez already has 130 people charged".
"Every day, more alone"
For Miguel Tellado, the president of the Government, "every day he is more alone; he will have to fill the rallies with extras; everything goes wrong for him in this campaign." He has pointed out that "we have seen Sánchez dancing in the pre-campaign, but we are going to give him that dance on the 29th at the ballot box", although he has warned that in these years "Sánchez has caused tremendous damage; there are a thousand problems today that did not exist before him". He has summarized that assessment in ten major fronts: "they have not stopped stealing; they have brought the prestige of the institutions down; they have attacked the pillars of the Constitution, especially the separation of powers; they have stripped the Spaniards of their wallets; they have wrecked the housing market; they have deteriorated all public services; we have the worst PISA data".
He has added that "they have left the borders unprotected; they have encouraged illegal immigration; they have blown up the principle of equality; they have damaged Spain's image abroad by allying themselves with the worst tyrannies; and they have poisoned coexistence with an unprecedented petty wall policy. We have to reverse all of it, from the A of Ábalos to the Z of Zapatero." Therefore, he has demanded "to change everything; we are not satisfied with the fall of Puente; it is not enough for only the most terrible ministers of this Government to leave; they all have to go, with their boss at the head." In his view, "Puente has not left for responsibility; if that were the case, he would have left nine months ago. He is not leaving because of the more than one hundred dead from the trains; he is leaving because of the fewer than one hundred seats that the polls give to the PSOE."
"Recovering order"
Against this backdrop, Tellado has accused Sánchez of having "thrown everything into chaos and his people have stripped everything." He has pointed out that "it is up to us to regenerate it all. We have to put order in the borders, in public services, in the institutions today completely invaded by party-card sanchistas who have acted as subjects, and we have to recover order and security in the streets, because without order and security there is no freedom for citizens." Therefore, he has insisted that "the elections of 29 November are not just one more election; they are not like the 16 elections we have held since the Transition; this is not about the PP beating the PSOE, but about Spain beating Sánchez," and he has emphasized that "they are the most important elections."
He has argued that "we are between the demolition of our democracy and the need for a new stage of national reconstruction, with deep reforms and institutional renewal; a choice is made between crime or decency, between national demolition or national reconstruction." With a nod to the wine-growing sector, he has pointed out that "the grape is ready for the PP and for Spain; we have been working for this for years and it is time to reap it," although he has warned that "no one should think the elections are won because that's not how it is; they will be won if we have here, in La Rioja, three seats and not two."
In this sense, he has asked “to go out into the street and ask for the vote for the PP, you have to speak plainly to the one who doubts, to the one who is tired, to the one who is angry, to the one who believes that his vote does not matter, because the reality is that everyone counts,” recalling that “a seat is won or lost with a handful of ballots.” He has recalled that “we know it because it happened in 2023, and it was then a handful of ballots that has led us to years of decline. For the Partido Popular to win, you can only vote for the Partido Popular. We have a task to do and we cannot fail; among all of us we are going to give Spain a better future.”