Spanish Council Election 2020 - Antena 3 Coverage

[Spain]

Susanna Griso: Good afternoon ladies and gentlemens and welcome to this special Espejo Público programme, where we will discover who will be our next European Union councillor. In an hour, polling stations on schools, sports centre or town halls will close and the ballot boxes all around Spain will open up to discover that name that all Spain is wishing to know. Now, before we start this special coverage, I must say hello to my workmates, Vicente Vallés and Matías Prats. How are you today? Excited?

Vicente Vallés: Good afternoon Susanna and also, good afternoon to our spectators from all around Spain. Today, I'll be incharge of showing you all the graphics, surveys and more things that you'll discover as the times passes. And today, we have Matías here, a complete veteran on this type of nights.

Matías Prats: Thanks Vicente and good afternoon to every spectator today with us. The question isn't who's going to win, the real question is "Which party has more support?". We also have to say that our councillor at the moment has runned again for councillor, as an independent candidate. So, let's start!

[Spain]

SG: Before polling stations end, we're going to do a review of the 6 candidates that Spanish can give their votes to today. Matías, Vicente, tell us more about them!

MP: First of all we have Donald Tusk, from Partido Popular. His ideology identifies a lot with the Centre-Right principles, and also, he's a pro European Progressive Alliance. Remember that we have 2 different European political groups, the Liberals and the EPA. We'll talk about them later. Let's see how Donald Tusk looks like:

VV: Then we have Iratxe Gracía, candidate from the Partido Socialista Obrero Español. With a centre-left ideology, she'd like to leave the EPA and join the European Liberals, that as we know, are going through a huge crisis. If Iratxe wins, this would have a major effect on the Government, since there will be 2 different ideologies representing us.

MP: Then we have Luis Garicano, from Ciudadanos. Also a pro-European Progressive Alliance candidate, his victory wouldn't be a major problem for the government, as they nearly share their ideologies. Also, a Ciudadanos' victory would mean that the Government would be losing its support, so we'll have to keep an eye on them.

VV: The following candidate is Pablo Bustinduy, from Unidas Podemos. His ideological principles are a mix between far-left and leftism. He's not expected to win, but he could get major support from some unhappy PSOE voters that would like to try something new as Unidas Podemos. He's a pro-European Liberals candidate, but he could ask the government for a Spexit referendum if he wins.

MP: Next we have Jorge Buxadé, from VOX. He is this election's far-right candidate and it has been said that he could have stolen some voters from the Partido Popular, Ciudadanos and even Unidas Podemos. If he wins he will force the government to leave the European Union without even asking for it to the people. It has been also said that he could make his party, VOX, become the 3rd political party in Spain. Let's see what will finally happen.

VV: And finally we've our councillor, Alfonso Rodríguez, that is running as an independent candidate. He was chosen by President Jesús Aguilar for one single reason. He wasn't a member of any political party. At the moment, he's incharge of the newest European project, the Eurostar. He could win, there is a high chance on that and his major competitor is Donald Tusk. But, let's see what will happen tonight.

[Spain]

SG: In 30 seconds polling stations all around Spain will close and the votes will start to be counted. And here it is, our countdown! 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... And the polling stations have just closed and votes can start to be counted! And here we have the first exit poll, made by the BBC... Vicente, tell us about it!

VV: So, here it is, the first exit poll, coming, as you said, by the BBC.

As we can see, Donald Tusk would be our new councillor. But, nearly we have our councillor, Alfonso Rodríguez, that would have overpassed every party in exception of the Partido Popular. Iratxe García and the Partido Socialista Obrero Español would have archieved the 3rd place, and we do have to look into the Ciudadanos votes, as they could have growed a lot since the last elections. Then, we have Unidas Podemos that gets a minor results than they could have expected, and finally, we have VOX, that doesn't get as many votes as they'd like to. One thing is clear, Spain could have voted to stay on the EPA, and for sure, we do know something. Spain wants to remain in the European Union.

[Spain]

SG: Thank you Vicente, we will come back to you when we recive more exit polls. And now, Matías, tell us a bit about the European Political Groups.

MP: First of all, we have our current political group, the European Progressive Alliance. President Jesús Aguilar decided to join it when we joined the European Union, and at the moment, Councillor Alfonso Rodríguez is the EPA's secretary. So, what if we leave the EPA? Then, we will have 2 different choices, not joining any European Political Group or, as Unidas Podemos and Partido Socialista Obrero Español have said, joining the European Liberals. But there is one disadvantage about that, and it is that, at the moment, only 1 country is in the European Liberals, which makes it a non attractive political group at the moment. According to the recent exit poll, we would stay in the EPA, and also, we would have a new councillor, so let's see what will happen.

[Spain]

SG: Thank you Matías. And now, we are going to reveal our exit poll, made by GAD 3 for RTVE, Atresmedia TV and Mediaset. Here it is:

• With a 33,50% of the votes, Donald Tusk would have won this elections and would become our next councillor. The Partido Popular would win this elections, and, for the first time in our history, our councillor would be someone related to a Spanish political party.

• Second place would be for Cllr. Alfonso Rodríguez, with a 29,50% of the votes. He has incredibly found the way to keep himself near Donald Tusk, and we have some other exit polls that say that he could have won the elections! For sure, there will be an enormus battle between Tusk and Rodríguez.

• Third place would be for Iratxe Gracía, from the Partido Socialista Obrero Español, with a 10% of the votes. We can appreaciate that mostly a majority of PSOE voters could have voted Mr. Alfonso Rodríguez instead of their own party. It also seems like the "we should join the European Liberals" campaign hasn't been very good for PSOE.

• 4th place goes for Ciudadanos. Luis Garicano would have obtained a 6% of the votes. GAD 3 thinks that we can see the same situation as we saw in PSOE, with the voters voting Cllr. Alfonso Rodríguez instead of Mr. Garicano. It's just curious how Rodríguez has attracted so many voted from so many different parties.

• Unidas Podemos and Pablo Bustinduy would get the fifth position and a 5% of the total votes. This time, their voters wouldn't have voted Mr. Rodríguez, otherwise they would have voted the Partido Socialista Obrero Español, thinking that if they could unify the votes into 1 party, they could join liberals. Anywbow, the startegy wouldn't have worked so fine.

• And finally, with a 2% of the total votes, we find Jorge Buxadé and VOX. What we could say about this, it is that only a minor part of the Spanish people would like to leave the Europe withouth even asking the other Spanish people about it. Hopefully, it seems taht we won't leave the European Union.

[Spain]

SG: So, it's finally here! We've the results of this councillor elections. Who has won? Donald Tusk will be our new councillor? Will Alfonso Rodríguez keep the seat on the European Council? Or, will we have a centre-left councillor instead? Let's see. Vicente, Matías, tell us about the definitive results for this elections!

VV: So, the results have been very tight between 2 candidates. Let's see what happened with a chart. Ready matías?

MP: Of course! Take them away

VV: Spain has elected a new councillor. El Partido Popular and Donals Tusk have won the Spanish Council Elections, with a 31,60% of the total votes. Spain, I repeat, has a new councillor, and he is Donald Tusk

MP: In second place, and with a 29,40% of the votes we find the, from now on, ex-councillor Alfonso Rodríguez. He has archived lot of support, much more than we expected some days ago. For sure, I think he will try to become councillor when he has the chance to.

VV: The third place is for Iratxe García, from the Partido Socialista Obrero Español, with a 12,00% of the votes. Very bad results for PSOE, that have lost lots of votes that, for sure, have gone to Mr. Alfonso Rodríguez.

MP: Ciudadanos is in fourth place and has gotten an 8,00% of the votes. As Vicente has said, many Ciudadanos' voters may have voted Rodríguez instead of Luis Garicano. Still, it's a very bad result for them.

VV: The worst result of the traditional parties is for Unidas Podemos, that has gotten a 6,00% of the votes. Pablo Bustinduy hasn't archieved his main objective, that was overpass the Partido Socialista Obrero Español.

MP: And finally, we can find VOX, that gets what we were expecting. A 2% of the votes and, we can say that only a minority would like to leave the European Union.

SG: Thanks for this great resume Matías and Vicente. And this has been all for tonight. Thank you for following the electoral journey with us and we hope that we've done the best to make it perfect. Goodnight.