The president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, participated yesterday, together with the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and the mayor, José Luis Martínez Almeida, in a party organized by the European PP under the title “Spain is Hispania” to attract the vote of Hispanics in the Madrid capital for the 28- M. At the event, Feijóo took the opportunity to accuse Pedro Sánchez of “paying tribute to autocrats”. Some words that raised an angry response from Moncloa.
Feijóo reproached the president of the central government for his affinity with the progressive leaders of Latin America, whom he considers almost dictators. It was precisely with them that Sánchez met on Saturday in previous meetings, within the framework of the Socialist International and also during the Ibero-American Summit, which is held in the Dominican Republic and in which the King also participates.
Specifically, the President of the Government met with the President of Argentina, Alberto Fernández; the one from Chile, Gabriel Boric; the one from Colombia, Gustavo Petro; the one from Honduras, Xiomara Castro; the one from Bolivia, Luis Arce, and the one from the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader. The Portuguese president, António Costa, also participated in the meeting.
Feijóo did not cite any of them. Not even when he criticized that Sánchez has been condescending to these presidents, nor when he explained why he shouldn’t be. “I am proud not to pay homage to rulers who are apprentices to autocrats, or to autocrats who use their people to improve themselves”, and the attendees applauded the most: “I do not miss meeting some rulers of Latin American nations”, he emphasized without citing any in particular.
The words of the popular president received a quick response from Moncloa, who called Feijóo “ignorant and irresponsible” for his criticism of Sánchez. Sources from the Spanish Government reminded the leader of the opposition that he forgets that Felipe VI is present at the Ibero-American Summit, together with the head of the Executive, and urged him to answer if he thinks it is wrong for the monarch to participate on a date like this.
Government sources denounced that Feijóo has no respect for anything or anyone and is not aware of the relevance of the Ibero-American Summits and the fact that Spain, along with Portugal, is a country that has two chairs in this type of meeting, in his case that of the Head of State and that of the President of the Government. In the same way, they reminded Feijóo that the former president of the government José María Aznar participated in Ibero-American Summits with presidents such as Cuba’s Fidel Castro.
Moncloa’s angry response was quickly refuted by the popular people, who assured that when Feijóo spoke of “apprentices of autocrats” he was referring to the “condescension of the PSOE and Podemos with respect to oppressive regimes”. They also expressed “their utmost respect for the King and the Ibero-American Summit”.
In his morning speech at the popular Hispanic party, the president of the PP also assured that he is with the Hispanics who work and who have had to come to Spain to have a future, as the Spaniards did back in the day who left for America in search of a better life: “The one who doesn’t resign to populism, the one who resists, the one who works”. The popular leader stood by him, “close to those who have come to work in Spain, those who respect its laws and accept its Constitution and feel Uruguayan, Venezuelan, Peruvian, Ecuadorian and Spanish, because it is compatible “. The popular leader thus sought his vote by appealing to what most moves and moves Latin Americans living in Spain. For this reason, he pledged to be “the president of all Hispanics in Spain” and promised them: “I assure you that I will not disappoint you.”
Feijóo also appealed for this support to an “open” party that does not believe in “bloc politics, in trench politics, in wall politics”, but in the politics of “holding hands, looking at each other in the eyes and move on”. The elections will be the time to “leave the trenches and tension and unite in the future”. Feijóo presents himself to Hispanics with the conviction that “a better policy is possible, that a better Government is possible, that freedom can be defended” and that “Hispanicity is a bet of the past, present and future”.
A campaign event to attract the Hispanic vote alongside Díaz Ayuso, who accused the Government of buying the vote of Latin American citizens in exchange for granting them nationality.
