Feijóo won the elections of 23-J, but he did not convince. He has put the PP back where Rajoy left it in 2016 and has even reversed the defeat in 2019, but he has lacked enough of a majority to neutralize the deadlock we are headed for. What happened so that he did not get the fork of the 150-160 deputies?

That many people who wanted to vote for him, hesitated, found reasons to think twice and decided not to. A circumstance that coincided with the activation of a PSOE vote that assumed that seeing Vox in a coalition government with the PP was an unacceptable intellectual and moral setback. A risk that justified sticking the horn in a hole in the face of the intolerance that could open its way against the LGTBI community, feminism, creative freedom or linguistic pluralism in our country.

Something went wrong in the communication, which caused a part of the center electorate that defends the liberal foundations that ethically define a democracy of the 21st century to step back. An electorate that stayed at home or returned to the PSOE, even if they were not convinced by this option. Undoubtedly, the disturbing policy of autonomous pacts followed with Vox in the previous weeks contributed to it. A factor that sowed doubts of confidence that could not be clarified and that slowed down the push necessary for Feijóo to obtain a sufficient majority requested since 28-M.

In this sense, what can the PP do to face the majority leadership obtained at the polls? To begin with, assume self-critically that you need to work to deactivate the mistakes and doubts that have brought you here. An essential thing in the face of public opinion, not published, which can once again become an electorate if the strategy that prevents it from going to the polls again is not correct. This is where Feijóo has to work. To demonstrate that Spain will not waste the opportunity to demonstrate at this moment that we are an asset of stability when Europe needs a critical mass of countries with moderate governments.

This requires that Europe does not see our presidency squandered due to a deadlock, or for the PSOE and Sumar to try a Frankenstein government in the cube, asking someone to give it life with an independence remote control from Waterloo. Therefore, Feijóo must convince Sánchez that both must live up to Spain’s commitment to Europe. This means that Spain must demonstrate with facts that we are an asset of stability for Europe in the face of the European elections in 2024. For this reason, Feijóo must give the PSOE the visibility of being the necessary minority that unblocks the formation of a single PP government. Something that the popular candidate for the presidency of the government will have to deserve and translate into a pact that expands the number of clauses that he signed in the famous televised debate that the two leaders starred in.

It will not be easy, but the only chance of real unblocking requires that a PP government agree with the Socialists on a Spanish agenda that is aligned with the European agenda that we could lead as a country after 2024. This would mean that the PP and the PSOE were, in addition to State parties, European parties, and that their leaders were able to sacrifice their national interests in favor of higher ones. Something that would put us in the first division and, perhaps, place a Spaniard at the head of the Commission in 2024 named Pedro Sánchez.