The expectations are very high for the PP. Alberto Núñez Feijóo and his team have set the bar very high, having more votes than the left, making it impossible for them to form a government, and thus forcing a negotiation with some parties that have supported Pedro Sánchez. All in order not to have to form a coalition government with Vox, which is the last of the options contemplated by the PP president.
From this stigma, that of being pointed out by the PSOE, Sumar, and other parties related to Pedro Sánchez, as a copy of Vox, more so after the agreements in Valencia and Extremadura, is what the popular leader has had to defend the most in this campaign, along with the recurring photo with the drug trafficker Marcial Dorado. or the alleged lies that the President of the Government awarded him face to face.
But nothing has had a reflection, according to sources from the PP leadership, in the expectations of the popular leader. The turning point, in favor of Feijóo, the same sources say, was the face-to-face that was held on the fourth day of the campaign, and afterwards, nothing has been able to reverse the upward trend, not even the three-way debate, nor the interview on TVE in which he gave erroneous information that he had to correct, nor his low back pain that prevented him from traveling to the Canary Islands.
According to the PP, the face to face was “the moment in which Spain discovered the power of our candidate”, and since that day “the support of the street has multiplied”. As an example, this same Friday Núñez Feijóo was applauded on a plane when the passengers noticed his presence. This leads the PP to conclude that “Sánchez is not only going to lose because he did it wrong, but because Spain already knows that Feijóo is better.”
But with this panorama and these expectations, the leader of the PP only has one way out, to get that indisputable result that will make him win and govern, and also, that will allow him, at least, to try to govern without Vox. What is that result? In the leadership of the PP they place it at around 150 deputies, quite a challenge for Feijóo. If he wins with 148 deputies, 60 more than he obtained in 2019, it could be interpreted as a failure, and the possibility of governing alone, or even of governing, could escape him.
In the PP they are convinced that this will not happen, that the result will be broader. The objective of Alberto Núñez Feijóo is to get more votes not only than the left, but also the left plus EH BIldu and ERC. That the formation of an alternative government to his is not possible even if the sum of his deputies and those of Vox reach an absolute majority. So, Feijóo will try to force a negotiation with other parties, such as the PNV, that can facilitate his investiture, just so that the government with Vox is not necessary. Those of Abascal, they assure, could not explain not facilitating the change and that Sánchez continues as president.
Given this perspective, the president of the PP models his speech, and where he spoke of repealing sanchismo, an expression that he maintains, he introduces nuances. It is a question, he said at the rally that he held this Friday in Malaga, before closing the campaign in A Coruña, of “repealing what has been done wrong, reforming what can be improved and leaving as it is what has been done well, which will be”.
They are conciliatory messages because “it is not a revenge” against the Sánchez government. “We do not want to take revenge on anyone, we want to govern for everyone”, what he wants, he explained, is a sufficient majority to form a government “without blackmail or ties”, in reference to Vox.
It is a message addressed to the most moderate part of his electoral spectrum and to ex-voters of the PSOE who doubt whether to give the vote to Núñez Feijóo, for fear of Abascal, after the campaign of the Vox leader, going at all times to confrontation. Before the ultra party, the PP leader responds with a moderate message: “I offer a cordial, serene and sensible change,” said Feijóo at the end of the campaign, calling for a useful vote to govern “without blackmail or ties, free, and having no interest other than that of the people. A government focused on what is important, ”he said.
Feijóo wants to capture, for that useful vote, voters from the left to the right, but at the end of the campaign he placed more emphasis on socialist voters, specifically on “disenchanted socialists.” The Andalusian president, Juanma Moreno, offered them another reason to do so. “Recover his party by voting for Alberto Núñez Feijóo, because the PSOE needs to be in the opposition to regenerate.”
