The change has a date, July 23, or then or nothing. It is the message of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, received yesterday in praise of crowds at the PP headquarters, together with the barons who have appeared in the elections on Sunday, with whom the popular leader wanted to share the success. “There are 54 days left to end sanchismo,” he told the PP’s national board of directors, the party’s highest body between congresses, convened last Friday to celebrate the electoral results.
But events have rushed and there is very little time for euphoria. The president of the PP has already put his party to work. We must face a campaign that Feijóo conceives of as one on one with Pedro Sánchez, hence his approach makes it clear what the Spanish are at stake on July 23, because, he said, although Sánchez wants the Spanish to have to choose between “ballot boxes or vacations”, the dilemma is another: “You choose between Sánchez and Spain, and I am convinced that the majority of citizens will choose Spain.”
A campaign with two options, two projects, for which Feijóo assures that he needs the entire PP, but that it will result in a melee between Pedro Sánchez and him. And he is the only one who can prevent the current president and the current government from repeating. “Sanchismo is to resist, whatever, with the usual or with anyone”, while the alternative is for “the PP to govern again for everyone”.
And in this endeavor, the president of the PP had good news yesterday, the decision of Ciudadanos not to run in the general elections. Something that Feijóo appreciated, because he considers it “an exercise in maturity and responsibility” and the demonstration that the orange party “has understood the result of the polls”, that it cannot let the votes be lost and not translate into seats ” , as has happened in many autonomous communities, where it has not been represented. There have been just over 300,000 votes that have been useless, and that concentrated in the PP would have expanded the popular victory against the PSOE.
For this reason, Feijóo tells Ciudadanos voters that it is “a historic opportunity to concentrate efforts on the PP, as a useful tool to win Sánchez” and invited them to join this task: “This is your home.”
Responding to the desire for change that the Spanish expressed on Sunday in a true “tsunami”, Feijóo stressed, is what the president of the PP offers to center-right voters. Another way of doing politics, putting an end to “chaos”, replacing “deceit and frivolous politics” with “truth, commitment and the general interest”. In other words, “shut down a government that has too many ministers and lacks dignity” and ensure that “they don’t take us back to any trenches”, because the Spanish have already left the one that existed “and they want to advance in unity, without blocksâ€.
Feijóo did not speak of pacts. Neither in his speech before the board of directors nor in the food he shared with the barons of the PP. There was no indication, neither of deadlines, nor of whether it is better to wait until the elections are over to hold them, nor what policy to take.
Azcón, who will be president of Aragón, but only if Vox allows it, will however call the PSOE first. That cannot be done by MarÃa Guardiola, who will preside over Extremadura, because the elections were won by the PSOE, although the sum of PP and Vox exceeds the left. Marga Prohens, who has more seats than the left, with which she would only need the abstention of Vox, something that will not be enough in Valencia.
Feijóo did not say anything to the barons, other than in what refers to the Basque Country, and endorsing a proposal by Carlos Iturgaiz on the same Sunday, he made his councilors and regional deputies available “to the constitutionalist forces to withdraw from Bildu any possibility of government”. The leader of the PP sees the rise of Bildu as worrying, and for this reason he promises to create “a solid government that knows how to say no to Bildu as of July 23” after the Sánchez government “has said yes to all”.
With this offer, the Basque PP could hand over the municipalities of Durango and Oion to the PNV and the mayor’s office of Vitoria to the Socialists, since in the Ãlava capital Bildu won seven seats, against the PSOE, the second, which had six , the same as the PP and the PNV, with fewer votes. The six ediles the PP makes available to the PSE-PSOE so that Bildu does not govern. And the same in the Gipuzkoa Provincial Council, where the PP is willing to give its three deputies to the PNV, which has 17 seats, against Bildu, which won with 22 seats. In this case it would be necessary for the PSOE, which obtained seven, to also give them to the PNV.
