Vox and PSOE: the deal no one confirms but everyone talks about

The phantom deal between Vox and PSOE stirring up the campaign

A tweet from @Javier Ruiz claims that "Vox has a deal with the PSOE" and points to two names within the party apparatus. Not a shred of proof, no document, no source. Just suspicion, which in electoral politics is worth almost as much as a headline. The claim is circulating while the polls —according to those who track them— show Vox rising and the PP losing ground, and that is the breeding ground where this kind of rumour cooks.

The reaction was not long in coming. Some see in the PP a nervous party returning to the 2023 playbook: scaremongering about Vox to stop the leak of votes. "Spoiler: it doesn't work," they warn. Others go further and argue that the PP plays its role of sidekick in the system, getting paid to give the appearance of democracy while the real adversary is someone else.

What lies behind the alleged deal between Vox and the PSOE?

The accusation is serious and, for now, unproven. The tweet offers nothing more than a statement and two mentions. But in the realm of electoral political fiction, the lack of evidence doesn't slow the conversation down: it fuels it. Some argue that Pedro Sánchez already said in an interview that he would never make a deal with Vox, and from that some deduce —with a knowing wink— that an investiture deal might already be signed. It's the kind of logic that doesn't withstand serious analysis, but works as ammunition on social media.

The most optimistic calculation for the PP assumes that antiestéticar of Vox mobilises its moderate electorate. The pessimistic scenario starts from the opposite: that this antiestéticar pushes voters towards Abascal's party, which appears as the only one capable of removing Sánchez without qualms. In that contest, the PP is playing for an absolute majority and Vox is rubbing its hands.

The PP and the antiestéticar of being overtaken by Vox

There are nerves in the PP, and they don't hide it. Talk is that, with the vote still to come, Vox could overtake them. The front page of antiestéticar, the dramatisation of the campaign, the artificial tension: all of it has one goal, rowing in favour of the work and creating the sense that only the PP can stop the far right. Or the other way around.

The paradox is that many right-wing voters don't want to hear about deals. "What we want is to get rid of Sánchez," sums up a majority current. "When the PP and Vox win, they'll have four years to fight each other." In other words: first the goal, then the squabbles. And in that scheme, Vox rising is not a problem, it's a means.

Why talk of a Vox-PSOE deal and not other alliances?

Because suspicion is more profitable than certainty. A deal between Vox and the PSOE would break every mental framework of the electorate and, precisely for that reason, it generates headlines. It cannot be ruled out that the campaign dynamic itself pushes parties into gestures that look like deals, even when they aren't. Politics is theatre, and the audience applauds or boos according to the script.

Meanwhile, the real debate remains another one: who governs, with whom and at what price. The alleged Vox-PSOE deal is, for now, a story without evidence that serves to talk about the usual things: antiestéticar, power and the polls. Does anyone have the document?