The televised election debate on Canal Extremadura, featuring ten candidates, lasted nearly three hours with little confrontation until the final minutes. Moderated by Manu Pérez, the event consisted of pre-set monologues that restricted idea exchange among key contenders like PP's María Guardiola and PSOE's Miguel Ángel Gallardo. Despite hopes, it did not shift the campaign dynamics ahead of the December 21 elections.
On Thursday, December 11, 2025, Canal Extremadura broadcast an election debate from the Palacio de Congresos in Mérida, featuring candidates from the ten parties running in the Badajoz and Cáceres constituencies. The agreed format included four thematic blocks—economy, equality, infrastructure, and future challenges—where each participant had two minutes to present ideas, followed by an optional one-minute reply, resulting in a series of camera-directed monologues rather than dynamic dialogue.
The six candidates from extraparliamentary parties opened the event: representatives from 'Por un Mundo Más Justo', 'Una Extremadura Digna y Soberana', 'Ciudadanos Extremadura', 'Nuevo Extremeñismo', 'Juntos por Extremadura Levanta', and PACMA (the latter represented by its national president due to the candidate's maternity leave). Their interventions, though impulsive, had little impact, as polls give them slim chances of seats.
The main contenders—María Guardiola (PP, current Junta president), Miguel Ángel Gallardo (PSOE), Óscar Fernández (Vox), and Irene de Miguel (Unidas por Extremadura)—followed the same structure. Guardiola touted her economic management, noting unemployment down to 13.5%, a record 437,300 employed, 82,000 self-employed, and leadership in wage growth, despite 'blockade' by PSOE and Vox. She rejected the 'green pact' that 'suffocates our countryside' and criticized the PSOE-Vox 'pincer'. Gallardo contrasted government models, accusing Guardiola of 'lying and swallowing Vox' to gain power, and defended central government investments in railways. Fernández equated PP and PSOE as a 'corrupt bipartisanship' behind rural ruin and Extremeño exodus, attacking Gallardo over his prosecution linked to Pedro Sánchez's brother. De Miguel blamed the right for regional woes, demanding closure of the Almaraz nuclear plant and criticizing tax cuts for big fortunes.
The debate, from 9:00 PM to nearly midnight, was called 'boring' and 'lackluster' by participants like De Miguel, who dubbed it a 'TikTok debate'. Only the last 15 minutes, with free interpellations, sparked tension, including mutual accusations on equality and corruption. Guardiola avoided risks, holding her poll lead, while Gallardo invoked the 'election conga'—a term Guardiola used in 2023 against PSOE. No post-election pacts were sealed, though Vox demands rejecting the 'green pact' for any PP alliance. Guardiola will skip next week's TVE debate, limiting her exposure.
This event, her only one, failed to sway the undecided (15% per CIS) and reinforced existing positions in a campaign vital for regional and national politics.
