The protagonist absent from the motion of censure, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, aspires to be the beneficiary of a situation that a priori looked bad for him. The PP considers Santiago Abascal’s initiative a “resounding failure” and believes that Vox voters have not understood the movement of their party and, even less, the candidacy of Ramón Tamames. Hence, Feijóo now has an objective, “go for Vox’s votes”, popular sources say.
The PP had considered the Vox fishing ground exhausted, and since then it has launched itself for a million votes from the PSOE. There are already more than 700,000, they say in the PP, but now it is about scratching voters from both sides, to the right and left.
The general coordinator of the PP, Elías Bendodo, assured yesterday that the PP “neither breaks with anyone nor marries anyone”, after Isabel Díaz Ayuso declared her relations with Vox broken on Thursday, a rupture that the president of the Community de Madrid assured that it has nothing to do with decisions made in the leadership of the party. Bendodo stressed that the PP continues “working on building an alternative to the Government of Pedro Sánchez, a serious State government.”
In a week, Feijóo will celebrate one year at the head of the PP, but the popular leader will not entertain himself in celebrations, “there is no time for that,” say the sources consulted. There is a lot of work, and that is why the popular leader just wants to turn the page on the parenthesis that the debate has caused and recover “the cruising speed of his project.”
The president of the PP intensifies his activity, today with a rally in Madrid aimed at Latin American immigrants who will be able to vote on 28-M. The following day, Sunday, he will present the framework programme.
The failed motion of no confidence will not make Feijóo move one iota from the script designed a year ago to reach Moncloa. Focus on the problems of citizens.
The conclusion that Feijóo draws from the motion is very different from the one transmitted by Sánchez. For the president of the PP, the Government does not come out stronger. At most, he considers that the motion has given him an oxygen balloon that has taken effect during the 48 hours that the debate lasted, but of that “nothing remains.”
The popular ones recognize that the president managed not to talk about Tito Berni or the law of only yes is yes, but nothing more. After the motion, the resignation of the director of the Civil Guard for an alleged case of corruption in which her husband is accused, has erased, in the opinion of the PP, any advantage of the PSOE.
The analysis of the leadership of the PP is that the motion was lost by “Vox y Podemos” and won by Yolanda Díaz and themselves, because they have proven to be, they say, “the pragmatic and useful right to change the Government”, in contrast to to Abascal. And Díaz because she has presented her program and her platform that supposes “the appropriation of Podemos”.
With that conclusion, Feijóo is convinced that his abstention in the motion was appropriate. Had he voted with Vox, he could not now present himself as the refuge for that vote that has not understood Abascal or Tamames’ candidacy.
However, he will not give up continuing to attract PSOE votes. The leadership of the PP also sees Sánchez’s attempt to “associate” Feijóo with Vox failing, and, for this reason, he does not give up capturing the transfer of votes from the PSOE.
However, the PP has another objective, “to continue showing that the Government is in decomposition” without Sánchez being able to dismiss Irene Montero. For this reason, he will take advantage of the changes planned in the Executive with the departure of Reyes Maroto and Carolina Darias to demand “a broader remodeling” that includes Fernando Grande-Marlaska and Irene Montero.
