Feijóo will try to form a government and asks the other parties not to block Spain

Alfonso Guerra’s phrase in 1996, after the elections won by Jose María Aznar, would be what best summarizes the electoral result of this July 23rd. “There has never been a bitter victory or a sweeter defeat.” And it is that the PSOE lost the elections after 14 years in power, but it did so losing by little more than one percent of the votes.

And it is that the PP has won, and has taken 14 seats from Vox -which has remained at 33-, but it will not be enough to govern. Also bitter because the PP, with Alberto Núñez Feijóo at the helm, expected something else, another result, of course more favorable. He had set his floor at 150 seats, and they stayed far away, and they had their hopes set on reaching 160, a figure they considered magical to convince Vox to let him govern alone.

Neither alone nor in a coalition, despite the triumph of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo does not have the accounts, because the sum of the popular seats plus those of Vox are five or six short of an absolute majority, and they can only count on the support of the UPN deputy and that of the Canary Coalition. No formula to reach the necessary 176.

Despite this, the PP president last night claimed his “right to form a government” and asked the rest of the parties, “as usual in a democracy,” to allow the investiture of the candidate who has won the elections. His argument, in addition to having won the elections, is that the PP “rises more than any other party, 47 seats, while the government coalition, that is, PSOE and Sumar, go back five.”

He admits it won’t be easy, but he’s determined to try. “As a candidate with the most support, with all humility and determination, I take charge of trying to form a government and I ask that no one be tempted to blockade Spain again.”

Alberto Núñez Feijóo does not give up, at least, to try, and for this he will start a round of talks with the rest of the parties. He will explain to all of them that it is that there is no government formula that does not pass either through Feijóo, or “by the express yes of Bildu.” That is why he goes to the PSOE and the PNV to ask them for “the same commitment that Feijóo had in Vitoria”, they say in PP sources, when he allied himself with the PSE and PNV so that there would be no mayor of Bildu, and he obtained it. The justification, to ask for this support, that it is about “reducing the decision-making capacity of the nationalist left.”

For this reason, the president of the PP assured that “we would not understand a decision that did not go in that direction”, and recalled that “this country never made someone who had lost the elections president.” The opposite, he stressed, “would be an anomaly”, because the one who would have obtained the most votes would not be president.

And it is that, although by little, the PP won the PSOE by almost 300,000 votes, and something more than a point of difference. A situation very similar to the one that occurred in 1996, when Aznar won the Socialists by 300,000 votes and obtained a difference of just over one point. Then, the socialist candidate, Felipe González, stressed that he believed that the most voted list should try to form a government.

Although the PP did not want to see the reality until well ahead of the vote, and they trusted that the recount would take them to at least 140 seats, the PP followers feared it from the beginning. From very early on, the PP prepared for the party and the exit to the balcony, but the influx of supporters, perhaps first because of the heat, but later because of how the results were coming out, was scarce, barely a few hundred. It was only after 11:30 p.m., when it was learned that the PP had won the elections, that more citizens were encouraged to go to the PP headquarters. There, and during the speech, shouts of “President, President” for Feijóo, and of “Oa, oa, oa, Feijóo a la Moncloa”, but also shouts of “Ayuuso, Ayuuso”, cheering the president of the Community of Madrid, present on the balcony together with the leadership of the PP and the mayor of the capital. A shout that seems to have been not amusing to Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who, to minimize the effect, joined the bandwagon to thank the Madrid president for having been by her side all the time.

Despite the applause, the victory was bitter. Throughout the night, the only appearance before the media was that of Cuca Gamarra, when only the exit polls were known, and he spoke of prudence. Then, Gamarra stressed that the PP recovered the first position by being the first force, something that had not happened since 2015, which was confirmed, although it was not the only one that won, also the Socialists. In short, a bitter victory, hard to swallow. election of this July 23. “There has never been a bitter victory or a sweeter defeat.” And it is that the PSOE lost the elections after 14 years in power, but it did so losing by little more than one percent of the votes.

And it is that the PP has won, and has taken 14 seats from Vox -which has remained at 33-, but it will not be enough to govern. Also bitter because the PP, with Alberto Núñez Feijóo at the helm, expected something else, another result, of course more favorable. He had set his floor at 150 seats, and they stayed far away, and they had their hopes set on reaching 160, a figure they considered magical to convince Vox to let him govern alone.

Neither alone nor in a coalition, despite the triumph of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo does not have the accounts, because the sum of the popular seats plus those of Vox are five or six short of an absolute majority, and they can only count on the support of the UPN deputy and that of the Canary Coalition. No formula to reach the necessary 176.

Despite this, the PP president last night claimed his “right to form a government” and asked the rest of the parties, “as usual in a democracy,” to allow the investiture of the candidate who has won the elections. His argument, in addition to having won the elections, is that the PP “rises more than any other party, 47 seats, while the government coalition, that is, PSOE and Sumar, go back five.”

He admits it won’t be easy, but he’s determined to try. “As a candidate with the most support, with all humility and determination, I take charge of trying to form a government and I ask that no one be tempted to blockade Spain again.”

Alberto Núñez Feijóo does not give up, at least, to try, and for this he will start a round of talks with the rest of the parties. He will explain to all of them that it is that there is no government formula that does not pass either through Feijóo, or “by the express yes of Bildu.” That is why he goes to the PSOE and the PNV to ask them for “the same commitment that Feijóo had in Vitoria”, they say in PP sources, when he allied himself with the PSE and PNV so that there would be no mayor of Bildu, and he obtained it. The justification, to ask for this support, that it is about “reducing the decision-making capacity of the nationalist left.”

For this reason, the president of the PP assured that “we would not understand a decision that did not go in that direction”, and recalled that “this country never made someone who had lost the elections president.” The opposite, he stressed, “would be an anomaly”, because the one who would have obtained the most votes would not be president.

And it is that, although by little, the PP won the PSOE by almost 300,000 votes, and something more than a point of difference. A situation very similar to the one that occurred in 1996, when Aznar won the Socialists by 300,000 votes and obtained a difference of just over one point. Then, the socialist candidate, Felipe González, stressed that he believed that the most voted list should try to form a government.

Although the PP did not want to see the reality until well ahead of the vote, and they trusted that the recount would take them to at least 140 seats, the PP followers feared it from the beginning. From very early on, the PP prepared for the party and the exit to the balcony, but the influx of supporters, perhaps first because of the heat, but later because of how the results were coming out, was scarce, barely a few hundred. It was only after 11:30 p.m., when it was learned that the PP had won the elections, that more citizens were encouraged to go to the PP headquarters. There, and during the speech, shouts of “President, President” for Feijóo, and of “Oa, oa, oa, Feijóo a la Moncloa”, but also shouts of “Ayuuso, Ayuuso”, cheering the president of the Community of Madrid, present on the balcony together with the leadership of the PP and the mayor of the capital. A shout that seems to have been not amusing to Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who, to minimize the effect, joined the bandwagon to thank the Madrid president for having been by her side all the time.

Despite the applause, the victory was bitter. Throughout the night, the only appearance before the media was that of Cuca Gamarra, when only the exit polls were known, and he spoke of prudence. Then, Gamarra stressed that the PP recovered the first position by being the first force, something that had not happened since 2015, which was confirmed, although it was not the only one that won, also the Socialists. In short, a bitter victory, hard to swallow.