Today in his investiture speech, Alberto Núñez Feijóo will outline the measures of his government program for the 48 million Spaniards. On the one hand, economic proposals, such as the lowering of personal income tax and the reduction of VAT on basic foods; also social, such as the reform of article 49 of the Constitution to eliminate the term “disabled”; and institutional, with greater independence of the Judicial Branch.
These are the main initiatives that he will address to contrast them with Pedro Sánchez’s project which, he will emphasize, only benefits those who are willing to give him the votes to be re-elected president: amnesty, self-determination referendum or forgiveness of more than 420,000 million euros.
The general secretary of the party, Cuca Gamarra, thus defined the dichotomy that the PP leader’s speech will raise: “either Feijóo or amnesty.”
The candidate presents himself with the certainty of having won the elections. According to sources from the national leadership, “with the endorsement of someone who has the direct support of more than eight million voters, and up to 11 million with the parties that will support him.” Also with the “moral support of an immense majority of Spaniards” who mobilized, according to what they say in the PP, in the event organized on Sunday against the amnesty. To all of them, the PP guarantees that “it will keep its word.”
Aside from the programmatic proposals, the amnesty, one of the demands of the pro-independence parties for the investiture, will occupy an important part of the discourse. Discarded and censored by the popular candidate, it will influence the Chamber that if Sánchez approves it, it will be a concession to the promoters of the process that is unacceptable for the PP, even if it costs him the presidency of the government.
Cuca Gamarra explained it yesterday: “Feijóo is the first candidate who, having the possibility of obtaining the necessary votes for his investiture, renounces being president, because he prefers dignity to a government with indignity.” The leader of the PP “is a person of his word” and will not give in to demands that, according to the candidate, go against his principles, “as they went against Sánchez’s principles,” the PP emphasizes, although now the president socialist is willing to assume them.
With this panorama, the PP presents itself to the investiture of its leader making a call “to the conscience of different political sensitivities” to reflect on whether they prefer “a firm and solid government, but one that is open to dialogue and reliable.” And they make a specific appeal to the nationalists, to whom they suggest questioning whether, with his experience, “Sánchez is more trustworthy.”
Although Feijóo’s investiture is a priori doomed to failure, the PP leader will also take his time to present his government program. In it he will draw a smaller Council of Ministers than Sánchez’s, so that instead of the current 22 ministers, he would have 15. And he will set out the priorities of a government that he will not be able to form, listing what would be his first measures if it were president.
The economy will be the protagonist. In this area, he will mention measures such as the reduction of personal income tax for incomes of less than 40,000 euros, to compensate for inflation; the reduction of VAT on meat, fish and preserves; that the tax on large fortunes – the tax created by the Sánchez Government that taxes fortunes of more than three million euros – be managed by the communities through the wealth tax so that the autonomies decide if they want to eliminate it – as Madrid or Andalusia have done – or maintain it as in Catalonia.
In institutional matters or democratic regeneration, the PP candidate will commit to guaranteeing the independence of the Judiciary, with a new appointment system. The candidate also plans to guarantee market unity through collaboration with the autonomous communities and commit to administrative simplification.
Another issue that Feijóo plans to address refers to the application of a tax incentive program to take advantage of European funds more effectively and review the tax and deduction framework for investments and emerging companies.
A program prepared to govern, but without the possibility of being executed, if the result of the investiture is as expected.
