The times are important, and the arguments too, and Alberto Núñez Feijóo is going to give himself time for both. He is in no hurry, say sources close to the president of the PP. “He is 35 days old”, they underline, and they will go step by step. Genoa is aware that its commitment to investiture is risky and that a quick round of talks with the different parties in the parliamentary arc, from the PSOE to the last, with the sole exception of EH Bildu, would too quickly confirm the impossibility of its investiture get ahead, which clashes with the interests of Feijóo.
The president of the PP will try, during this long month that he has until the investiture session, called for September 26 and 27, to create an image of presidential candidate that collapsed with the reality that the electoral results gave him: his votes they were not enough to be president. In fact, in the leadership of the PP there is little doubt that the investiture will be unsuccessful. Feijóo seems to be the one who has the most hope.
Some hopes that are fixed in the PNV and in Junts. Both with the Basque nationalists and with those of Puigdemont, the president of the PP will use the same arguments, with the same perspective. PNV and Junts will have to explain to their voters why they reject a PP government, in which Vox will no longer have any role, they stress, and prefer one of Sánchez, in which Podemos or the commons will be.
And it is that Alberto Núñez Feijóo will approach these two parties, leaving aside the identity issue and brandishing an economic and social discourse that the PP maintains is more similar to that defended by the PNV or Junts than the one that a Sánchez government will present to them. in which Sumar is present, which means submitting to the discourses of the commons, represented in the case of Catalonia, stand out, by Ada Colau or by Ione Belarra.
“Beyond ideological and identity differences – they say in the PP – there are other things, especially in the economic sphere, such as lowering taxes, financing or the shopping basket”, in which the PNV and Junts are closer to the PP than to Sánchez. In the opinion of those of Feijóo, these two parties will have to explain to their voters why they do not give priority to these issues.
Because in “the identity question”, they say in Genoa, the PP “is not going to give anything”. In this, Alberto Núñez Feijóo wants to be very clear, “neither amnesty nor a self-determination referendum are on the table.” With this unequivocal position, the PP will also try to appease a sector of the Catalan PP, represented by the president of the party in Catalonia, Alejandro Fernández, concerned about the approach to Junts, which he reflected in a tweet. “Movements (and photos) are coming that are going to destroy the reputation of whoever promotes them. Because there is nothing more valuable than being consistent with your past, your principles and your opinions”.
This sector of the Catalan PP stresses that Sánchez cannot be accused of negotiating with a fugitive from justice, and doing the same a few days later. But in the PP they defend this dialogue, because if other parties are already the ones that close the doors to talk with the PP, it should not be the popular ones who do the same.
Feijóo will also invite ERC to those conversations, although he knows that he has nothing to do with this party, because not only the identity discourse separates them, but also the economic one, and there are many of the initiatives of the last legislature; the last one, the housing law. But ERC is the party of the president of the Generalitat, PP sources remark, and Alberto Núñez Feijóo has the institutional respect it deserves, regardless of the ideological abyss that separates them.
The president of the PP will also try to speak with the PSOE, although it remains to be seen if the contacts are limited to the parliamentary sphere, and then he will call Patxi López, or if Feijóo tries a conversation with Pedro Sánchez, which would have little chance of prospering, they predict in the PP.
But that will be next week, when it is defined what type of contacts there will be, who will carry them out and on what dates. At the moment, Núñez Feijóo is trying to exploit his status as a candidate for the presidency of the government, and wants to recreate what he has achieved in this year and a half that he has led the PP. It will be what will stand out this weekend in Soutomaior (Pontevedra), where the PP will return after seven years, after having recovered the deputation of Pontevedra, since the previous holder, Carmela Silva, denied the PP the power to do so in the castle of this Galician municipality. A whole symbol to talk about the achieved territorial power.
His investiture has another meaning. In his last face-to-face with Sánchez in the Senate, Feijóo told the Prime Minister that the next time they would meet in Congress, and it would be at his investiture, and he would speak without a time limit. That will happen on September 26 and 27. A little revenge, even if it doesn’t do much.
