• Monday 13th June set as sole televised debate among presidential hopefuls
• Debate to follow televised Spain-Czech opener in Eurocopa 2016 football finals
Spanish voters will have just one chance to see the four leaders of Spain’s principal political parties in a single televised debate during the upcoming general election campaign, which at the reported insistence of acting-Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of the conservative Partido Popular (PP) will take place on the same night as the Spanish national football team’s opener against the Czech Republic in the finals of the UEFA EURO 2016 tournament.
Despite multiple other options for the four-way televised debate having been suggested by participating media organisations and Spain’s leading opposition Socialist party (PSOE), Rajoy reportedly insisted on Monday 13th June, the opening day of the two-week campaign for the upcoming 26th June (26-J) general election. The debate — which will pit Rajoy against PSOE leader Pedro Sánchez, centre-right Ciudadanos party leader Albert Rivera and anti-austerity Podemos party leader Pablo Iglesias — will be held in the evening, following the televised Spain-Czech Eurocup final match in late afternoon
Rajoy has said the 13th June debate will be the only one in which he’ll participate with the other candidates and both Sanchez and Rivera have said they will not participate in any additional debate in which Rajoy does not take part. The four-way debate, to be broadcast simultaneously by TV stations nationwide via a signal provided by Spain’s Academia de la Televisión national TV broadcasting association, will be moderated by journalists from Spanish broadcast media RTVE, Atresmedia and Mediaset.
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