In the famous palm grove of Elx, the third city in the Valencian Community, characterized by the push of its industry, Alberto Núñez Feijóo has called on voters to “mobilize and concentrate the vote, because if we want Sánchez to leave and we start to divide the vote stays.”
The national president of the PP has chosen Elx, an economic-themed event and the company of two party colleagues personally close to his predecessor, Pablo Casado, such as the president of the Consell, Carlos Mazón, and the mayor of Elche, Pablo Ruz, to celebrate the first act of the first day of a campaign for the European elections that seems transcendental for his political future and has been presented as a duel “between the socialist model and the reformist model”, almost a face to face between him and Pedro Sánchez.
Feijóo has accused Sánchez and his Minister of Ecological Transition and head of the PSOE list in the European Parliament, Teresa Ribera, as those “most harmful to the countryside, to industry and to water in Spain.”
Feijóo has criticized the Government’s “complacency” in economic matters: “When some say that the economy is going like a rocket, not only do they live on another planet, but they lack respect for the Spanish people,” he said after recalling that unemployment youth stands at 27% and that Spain suffers one of the highest rates of child poverty in the EU.
The popular leader has outlined the seven points of a program aimed at making “Europe once again the territory of greatest economic prosperity in the world”: more competitiveness, less bureaucracy; the reindustrialization of Europe (“the factory of the world cannot be China”; more European funds and better and more efficiently distributed; more innovation that includes a plan so that Spain and Europe “are not left behind in Artificial Intelligence.” Also some rules fairer with the countryside (“those who do not know about agriculture do not make the regulations”) and ensure that farmers compete on equal terms with those from other countries that do not have the same controls or the same working conditions; cheaper energy; and cleaner, and a European Water Plan to finance water infrastructure.
Feijóo observes four important challenges for the next period in Europe, the democratic challenge, in which he has stopped to criticize the amnesty bill, because “if the crimes committed by politicians are not prosecuted because they modify the penal code to the letter, democracy is over”; the social challenge, of families, conciliation and the future of young people; the geostrategic challenge, with special reference to the Russian invasion of Ukraine – “today it is the Ukrainians’ turn, tomorrow it could be our turn” – and the economic challenge.
The popular leader has not missed the opportunity to refer to the latest current political events, such as the withdrawal of the land bill, showing his astonishment that the PSOE blames the opposition for the internal discrepancies of the Executive. “They are going to fight until June 9 and on June 10 they will meet again to share the loot,” he said. He has also criticized the president’s reaction after Milei’s “unacceptable” intervention in Madrid, because “in a week we have been able to break with Argentina and we will see what happens with Israel.”
He has also defended Felipe González, whose intervention yesterday on a television program had been criticized by Teresa Ribera: “Felipe González already has a place in history that Teresa Ribera will never have.” And he has stated that “it is not normal to silence everyone who disagrees, for the President of the Government to give an order to the President of Congress to keep me quiet, or for those who publish corruption to be pointed out.”
