Encouraged by their recent electoral victories in Greece, Finland and Bulgaria, the leaders of the European People’s Party (EPP) supported Alberto Núñez Feijóo yesterday in Brussels, their great hope to recover the lost ground in the next elections to the European Parliament and in the Council European Union, where since the departure of the German Angela Merkel she has not led the Government of any of the countries with the greatest weight in the EU.
“Only a strong Popular Party, led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, will be able to offer the necessary political leadership to boost the European economy, create jobs and improve the security of Europe”, states the final statement of the popular summit, the third in which the Galician senator participates. In a sign of the importance it attaches to the electoral outcome in Spain, the EPP placed the leader of the PP in the front line of its family photo, between Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, and Kiriakos Mitsotakis, Prime Minister of Greece, and together with other heads of government, in addition to its president, Manfred Weber, and the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola. Other opposition leaders posed in the second row.
Feijóo informed his fellow Europeans of the “unheard of situation” that Spain is experiencing due to the coincidence of the elections with the start of the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, but also due to the decision of Pedro Sánchez to call them on the dates “more hot” of the year and “greater vacation exodus”. “This circumstance has never occurred”, but “despite all the difficulties and this coincidence of dates, the PP has a firm commitment to the Spanish presidency of the Council, and so I have transmitted it” to the leaders of the community institutions and PPE leaders, he said.
The PP leader did not skimp on criticizing Sánchez for the lack of dialogue on the preparations for the European presidency. “I have not had a single call” nor “received any document from the Government” (from Moncloa they reply that no country does anything similar). “I have to say with sadness that I have had more information about the presidency of the Council from the Swedish prime minister, who received me in Stockholm in his office (…) than from my country”. However, the PP is prepared, if it comes to power, to take the reins of the European presidency and is committed to making it a “success”, Feijóo assured.
To this end, it announced that it has a group of foreign policy experts made up of former European Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete, former ministers (Ana Palacio, José Manuel García-Margallo, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo), former ambassadors (Ramón Gil-Casares, Ildefonso Castro, Pablo García-Berdoy, Nicolás Pascual de la Parte, Javier Rupérez, José María Robles), the community law professor José María de Areilza and the MEPs Dolors Montserrat and Gabriel Mato.
This was not the only reassuring message that Feijóo brought to Brussels. Despite the fact that the PP, except for deputy Alberto Casero, voted en bloc against the labor reform, if it comes to power, it will not repeal it. The approval of this law was the key condition for receiving the second tranche of aid from the recovery plan (12,000 million), and, in accordance with the aid regulations, in the event that any of the measures agreed as counterpart to the funds If it were “revoked”, the European Commission can apply a “penalty” (cut) when the country in question requests more funds. “Substantially it is a good reform” and it is not part of his priorities to “modify it”, Feijóo insisted on clarifying yesterday.
