He BNG closed this Friday in Santiago in style a campaign where they put all the meat on the grill knowing that they are playing for a historic opportunity. The wind blows in favor of the nationalists, who have never been so close to achieving the Presidency of the Xunta. If it is fulfilled, what the surveys predict Block It would reach a record number of deputies, practically doubling those that the third party in the running, the PSdeG, could obtain.
The nationalist candidate, Ana Pontonassured that the change “can be touched with hands“. “We are about to make history. We are cherishing one of those moments,” he said before a dedicated audience that packed the sports hall where he put an end to the 18-F campaign. But he also warned that these are the “most open and tight” elections of the last 15 years. Therefore, “every vote is decisive.”
It is not just about mobilizing the nationalist electorate. The BNG needs also convince other voters that in previous calls they did not support them and Pontón appealed to them, who precisely since he led the Frontista formation has sought to give a friendlier image of nationalism. “No matter what was voted in other elections, there are many ways to feel Galician and all of them are necessary for change,” he said. But he also appealed to the undecided and the “nonconformists.” “This is not the time to stay home,” he proclaimed.
At her last campaign rally, Pontón was surrounded by historical leaders as Camilo Nogueira o Xosé Manuel Beiras, who also attended the BNG event in Vigo on Thursday. His presence is a symbol of the reconciliation of nationalism, which was split in two twelve years ago after Beiras and his people left the common home to create Anova. Now everyone is rowing in the same boat to bring Ana Pontón to the Xunta, including the former general secretary of Podemos, Carmen Santos.
The nationalist warns that the change in Galicia is already “unstoppable“. And he also added that the victory is going to be “heroic.” “We will win despite the lies of the PP, the use of public funds, in the style of despotism 2.0, to engage in electoralism,” he rebuked the popular ones.
“Everything that is not PP, is ETA”
In fact, Pontón regretted the “defamation and lies” campaign of the PPdeG. Thus, he denounced that at the start of the campaign the popular candidate for the Presidency of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda, “he only talked about Catalonia and Puigdemont.” “That was easier than explaining why there is a 15-day waiting list for the family doctor,” she failed. And then she took a turn, according to the BNG candidate, and they went on to “everything that is not the PP is ETA.”
In the final stretch of the campaign, as the polls were pointing to an increase in support for the Bloc, The PPdeG candidate for the Presidency of the Xunta was sharpening his attacks towards Ana Pontón and the nationalists. Thus, the popular leader not only emphasized his relationship with collectbut also revealed that the BNG’s electoral program includes self-determination and linguistic immersion in Galician in schools.
That is the result of “nervousness” of the popularin the words of the nationalist candidate, who believes that “they pressed the panic button because they are going to go over to the opposition.”
And in an event prior to this campaign closing party rally, the BNG gathered in Santiago all the members of its candidacy for the Parliament of Galicia where they raised, on the one hand, the Bloc’s electoral ballot and, on the other, challenged the PP getting high the badge with the wolf in sheep’s clothing that the popular ones designed to attack the nationalists for their relations with Bildu.