Esteban González Pons (València, 1964) is part of the hard core of Alberto Núñez Feijóo. A Valencian with an extensive political career and a good connoisseur of European politics as an MEP, he is the man who advises the president of the PP on foreign policy.
Feijóo proposed a pact to Sánchez so that he governs the most voted list of 23-J. But this offer has not been made by the PP for the autonomies.
Perhaps for those of us who aspire for the government of the most voted list to extend to all areas, starting with a pact at the national level would be a beginning.
Was it an excuse to justify a possible pact with Vox?
No. Sánchez does not believe that he can win, because if he did, he would immediately have accepted that offer that would allow him to govern without Esquerra and without Bildu. The will of the PP is to govern alone, we do not aspire to form a coalition, but to avoid it and after the elections the first option of the PP is the abstention of the PSOE and that we will only consider other scenarios if the PSOE refuses.
On 28-M a campaign was set up criticizing the pacts with Bildu or the law of only yes is yes. Are these frameworks maintained or have the agreements with Vox altered them?
I believe that the framework of the campaign of the regional and municipal governments was sanchismo, and that the framework of 23-J is also. Any framework that wanted to be imposed is Sánchez himself who has destroyed it. His narcissism makes him only talk about him.
Why hasn’t there been a general criterion of the PP with the pacts with Vox after 28-M?
The PP tries to form in each place the government that it is possible to form and that is most similar to the needs of each place. In Valencia and Extremadura we have no more votes than the left, and we need to form a coalition. In Murcia, the Balearic Islands or Aragon we have more votes than the left opposition and we believe that it is justified to govern alone.
What do you think when Vox denies gender violence, equality policies or the LGTBI collective?
I don’t understand. Because Vox is a party that arose from a patriotic wound, a reaction to the growth of the extreme left and the Catalan independence movement, but each time it talks less about the unity of Spain and more about intra-family violence and rainbow flags. I think that the reason with which they justified their entry into the political map has gotten out of hand.
The leader of the CDU, Friedrich Merz, says in an interview with this newspaper that he does not intend to agree with the extreme right.
They are lucky that the Greens agree with them and the Socialists let them govern; so we too could say the same. The PP has the problem that the PSOE does not intend to abstain and says that we cannot govern with Vox, so the PP cannot govern if it does not have an absolute majority?
Would a Feijóo government substantially change the policy with Morocco?
Let’s go back to the relationship with Morocco that we had before the famous letter that nobody knows why it was written, or who wrote it, or for what purpose. We are going to return to a policy with Morocco in accordance with the resolution of the UN Security Council and agreed in the Spanish Parliament, and we are going to restore relations with Algeria.
Would the decision be consulted with the US?
Spanish policy with respect to Morocco is Spanish and does not need to be consulted except with the Spanish Parliament. What I do not believe is that the turn that Pedro Sánchez has taken with foreign policy with Morocco has to do with Biden, but with the theft of information from his mobile phone by Pegasus.
Have you had contacts with Algeria?
No. We are an opposition party that respects the initiative of the Government but when we are Government our relationship with Morocco must be privileged, special, of brother countries, but without ceasing to have a normal relationship with Algeria.
José Manuel Albares said in an interview in this newspaper that the PP only conceives the policy with Latin America with the countries with which they have ideological affinity.
Albares carries out the Spanish foreign policy that a Moroccan minister would do if we allowed him to have an office in Madrid. We have a very fluid relationship, I have even had close contacts with Lula’s Executive in anticipation of the change of government in Spain. The strange thing is that Albares is not by my side defending the Venezuelan opposition and pointing out the Maduro government as a persecutor of freedom that must be tried in the International Criminal Court.
What do you think when Vox asks to outlaw Bildu or Esquerra Republicana?
I don’t share it at all. Criminals convicted of terrorism, as long as they do not repent and collaborate in clarifying crimes and ask for forgiveness, should not be candidates. Which does not mean that all ideas do not have the right to be defended.
What would Feijóo’s policy with Catalonia be like?
Feijóo, with a great autonomist sensibility, is a great opportunity for those of us who believe in an integrated Catalonia without giving up its personality. Feijóo offers Catalanism to return to constitutionalism that in 1978 also had Catalan paternity.
Are the bridges that were blown up under the government of Mariano Rajoy and the Catalan political actors being rebuilt?
We are rebuilding many bridges with Catalonia, we are talking to many people, we are offering ourselves as a solution in Catalonia, because we are a solution, and our attitude in the Barcelona City Council confirms this.
