Miguel Tellado, secretary general of Spain’s People’s Party (PP), urged voters to support Vox in three provinces in the general election scheduled for November 29. Speaking to TVE on Tuesday, he said voters should choose the PP for the Congress of Deputies, but back Vox for the Senate in provinces where the PP is not standing. “We ask people not to vote for the PSOE. We ask people to vote for Vox, of course,” he said.
The request follows an agreement between the PP and Vox for the Senate. The PP has withdrawn its candidates in Gipuzkoa, Tarragona and Girona, where Tellado said it had “practically no chance” of winning a seat. He argued that concentrating votes on the candidate with the best prospects, potentially a Vox candidate, could secure a majority for the change-seeking bloc in the upper house.
Vox, meanwhile, has withdrawn from six provinces: Las Palmas, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Cádiz, Valencia, Castellón and the Balearic Islands. In those areas, Vox will join PP Senate lists through candidates described as independent, although the source says they are closely connected to the party. Vox is fielding candidates elsewhere.
Tellado and PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo said the arrangement was intended to prevent the left from securing a Senate majority. Feijóo said the PP’s responsibility was to stop the left from controlling the upper house and blocking the work of Congress. The PSOE, the Frente Amplio and other regional parties have also agreed to run together for the Senate, seeking to strengthen their chances there.
Sources: elDiario.es.