The Popular Party and Vox have smoked the pipe of peace. Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Santiago Abascal have spoken to clarify the “misunderstandings” and assess “the discrepancies”, which have marked their turbulent relationship in recent months. And it seems that they have understood each other, since the ultra leader has announced “a new stage of collaboration” between the two formations.
Vox threatened yesterday to break with the Popular Party during the round of consultations that the political leaders have held with Felipe VI. If they did not have explanations as to why the popular did not lend their support last week to revalidate a vice presidency at the Congress Table, the extreme right would withdraw the 33 deputies that it made available for a possible investiture by Feijóo. That threat was not carried out.
According to sources from the ultra formation, the president of the Popular Party telephoned early this Tuesday with the leader of Vox to tie up the 172 supports with which to present himself to the monarch. In the conversation, according to the same sources, Abascal asked Feijóo for “an explicit rejection” of the cordon sanitaire to VOX.
The extreme right did its part. Abascal, as he announced in an intervention without questions before the media, announced that he had conveyed to King Felipe VI his support for the popular candidate. Of course, he listed the four conditions that the Popular Party had to publicly verbalize to finish bringing positions closer.
When it was Feijóo’s turn, in the middle of the afternoon after his meeting with the monarch, the leader of the popular groups was especially grateful for the “support without demands” from Vox. On several occasions he has named Vox after his name, something he avoided during the last electoral campaign.
Another of Vox’s demands was to “publicly value” the agreements that the right-wing has reached in five communities and more than 100 town halls. The president of the Popular Party has said of those from Abascal that they share the common objective of “defending our nation” and the Constitution as they are already doing, as it has repeated, in different regional and local governments.
After Feijóo’s appearance, Abascal celebrated on Twitter that the conservative candidate “has responded to the fair requests of VOX”.
“I hope that, from now on, the enemies of the government agreements between PP and VOX will refrain from jeopardizing the construction of the alternative again,” he said. “Therefore, a new stage of collaboration between two very different formations, very distant, but capable of respecting each other and reaching an agreement when necessary”, has ended.
