If Pedro Sánchez wants to base his campaign on the fact that his defeat would mean a coalition government between the PP and Vox, Alberto Núñez Feijóo will not give him the satisfaction.
The leadership of the PP is aware that in order to obtain some governments of communities where it has won, but not by a sufficient margin, it will have to agree with Vox, and that as of now it will only be president of the central government if it is supported by Abascal’s party.
But the president of the PP avoids talking about pacts. Or more precisely, of coalition governments with Vox that could mean for him the same ordeal that he senses that it has meant for Sánchez to have ministers from Unides Podemos in his cabinet. With one difference, he assures that he would not make the concessions that Sánchez has made.
For this reason, as happened on Monday at the press conference that he offered at the headquarters of the PP after the call for general elections, or on Tuesday in front of the national board of directors of his party, or on Wednesday at the Cercle d’Economìa, the president of the PP avoids commenting on the pacts in the same way, he says, that “Sánchez does not talk about the possible pacts with Bildu in Navarra, Pamplona or Vitoria”.
Feijóo’s mantra is that he wants to govern alone, even if he does not rule out agreements with Vox. In an interview on the program of Ana Rosa Quintana, on Telecinco, he stressed that the PP has won “clearly” in many territories, and has brought to these places “the change that the citizens demanded to turn the page on the Sánchez Government”.
Feijóo addressed Santiago Abascal to urge him that “if he wants to repeal Sanchism, as he assures, “he is in a position to facilitate it”, but that if what he wants is “a share of power in the councils or ministries, let him say it”.
The popular leader maintains that the PP “has clearly won” in the Valencian Community, Aragon or the Balearic Islands, “and I hope that no one will interrupt this change”.
An appeal to Abascal at a time when Feijóo has already made it clear that there will not be a global agreement, but will be negotiated territory by territory. He wants to show with this that his possible alliance with Vox will be a reality only if it is strictly necessary, and even then he will try to avoid it. If there are other possibilities, they will be explored and even prioritized.
Take as an example Cantabria, where the PP obtained 15 seats and if you add Vox’s 4, it would have one more than the absolute majority, but the until now president of the community, Miguel Ãngel Revilla, has already said that he will facilitate the investiture of the PP candidate in exchange for Vox not entering the Executive.
In the Balearic Islands, something similar. Marga Prohens is five deputies short of an absolute majority, which she would achieve with the 8 that Vox obtained, but the PP has more seats than all the other left-wing parties combined, and aims to govern alone, although for the his investiture needs, at the very least, Vox’s abstention. But they do not plan to incorporate them into the Government.
This will not be possible if the PP wants to govern Aragon or the Valencian Community, where it has won, or Extremadura, where PP and PSOE have tied for seats, although the Socialists have won in votes. There the 5 votes of Vox are indispensable compared to the 4 of Podemos.
Before this scenario, Feijóo dreamed of being in a situation like that of Marga Prohens in the Balearic Islands, where Vox would have to get involved in her investiture, but would not be in a position to demand ministries in her government.
Feijóo believes that the message that Pedro Sánchez addressed to his deputies and senators this week – in which he accused the PP of being a “Trumpist” party – proves what he has been saying for some time: “It has become politicized”. Feijóo acknowledges the criticism he perceives in some of the barons of the PSOE and believes that the socialists must do “a reflection” after which he suspects they will come to the conclusion that they need “a new leadership”.
In the interview, the president of the PP justified his statement that the socialists need a change of leader because “Sánchez is a worse candidate than the mayors and that many socialist presidents who have lost were overcome by Sanchism” and blames the campaign “in key national” developed by the president. Feijóo predicts that Sánchez will get worse results on 23-J.
It is clear that the leader of the PP will play, in the campaign, the wear card of the president of the Spanish Government because of the way he has governed with Unides Podemos and the pro-independence parties, including Bildu. This makes Feijóo consider that “Sánchez does not represent the PSOE, he represents himself”, and for this reason he has not called elections, because in his opinion there was a fear of “a motion of censure” within the PSOE against his leadership.
And he concludes: if he had suffered a defeat like the one suffered by Pedro Sánchez, “my answer would be not to stand in the elections”.
