A year can go by very quickly or feel eternal, or both at the same time. Certainly Alberto Núñez Feijóo is one of the latter. Going from being president of the Xunta, a position he had held for 13 years, to leading the opposition, is hard, and surely the popular leader has felt it that way. It has been a year today that Feijóo has been at the head of the PP and polls conclude that he has suffered wear and tear. At least, this is what the CIS says, that in April 2022, in the first barometer in which Feijóo was asked, the Spanish gave him a score of 5.20, compared to a 4.65 with which Pedro Sánchez qualified. In the last barometer, in March, the rating of the leader of the PP drops to 4.28, with a greater drop than that experienced by the president of the central government, who surpasses him with a score of 4.41.
A wear in which the head of the Central Executive has put a lot of effort, who in the first debate they both held in the Senate, on September 6, used a large part of his time to disqualify the leader of the opposition, and he coined the wedge of “insolvency or bad faith”, with which he countered what was supposed to be the main asset of the new leader of the PP, management. At that time, even the CIS placed Feijóo above Sánchez, with a rating of 4.48 against 4.37.
Despite this wear and tear, the president of the PP makes a moderately positive assessment. From Génova, three positive points stand out in Feijóo’s backpack: a demographic upswing, a certain ideological comeback and organic stability.
From the demographic point of view, they point out from the party, no one can deny that when Feijóo arrived in Génova the PP was in a situation similar to that of Vox, due to the internal crisis experienced with Casado. A year later, the PP tripled Abascal’s party in the number of seats in the polls. In the 2019 elections, the Popular Party lost 30 seats to the PSOE, and now the polls, excluding the CIS barometer, give it 40 more than the Socialists. “A remarkable comeback”, emphasize sources from Génova, who remember that Feijóo has always won in the first and if the polls are fulfilled he will do it again. In addition, “he has consolidated the party as an alternative”.
The ideological renewal is highlighted by the leadership of the PP, because it allows it to win votes from the right and the left at the same time, from the PSOE and Vox “something that is not at all simple”, they underline, after having also achieved the vote of Albert Rivera. He has achieved it, they emphasize, “thanks to the moderation” that defines Feijóo, a fact that was evidenced when to attack him, they say, they had to resort to “the intervention of a telepredicator”.
And on the organic question, Feijóo has pacified the party, they emphasize. “The Madrid problem has been solved and there are no tensions”, insist the sources, who consider that after the renewal of the territorial managements the party is “cohesive and united”. This allowed that in June, when Feijóo faced the first elections as leader of the PP, in Andalusia, Juanma Moreno obtained an absolute majority “and the PP is associated with a winning brand”. Results that, although with a smaller margin, he hopes to repeat on 28-M.
“And Feijóo doesn’t have any spots?” To say this, they say to the PP, “the Government is already there, turned into opposition to the opposition, we won’t say it”. The assessment that would be made from Moncloa would differ greatly, but above all they would highlight at least one stain: the fact that Feijóo, like Casado, has prevented the renewal of the General Council of the Judicial Power, when it was almost agreed upon. Or the lack of support for some central government reforms, the latest, on Thursday, that of pensions. What remains to be seen is whether all this translates into votes or not.
