Alberto Núñez Feijóo sees himself as president of Spain… one day. The problem for him is that this day will not come. Pedro Sánchez’s capacity for resistance seems infinite, but his latest move encourages him to persevere in criticism. He believes that Illa can win well, but that Sánchez can force him to agree with the pro-independence parties.
What did you think of the letter and the subsequent ratification in the position of Prime Minister?
An unprecedented frivolity in European politics. He deceives his party, hides information from his Government and from you, the media, most of whom thought that, after five days of resignation, he would make some decision. An international shame. We were on all the covers. We have exported to Europe the judicial problems of the Prime Minister and his entourage.
I did believe him. You never thought you would resign?
From the first moment it seemed to me that it was not for real. But it is true that last Sunday, seeing the newspapers, understanding that you are also very well informed and seeing that there was a basic consensus that something should be done, I had doubts. And when I see that he will see the King… Now, then he doesn’t say anything to him and I realize that we have the most frivolous president of Spanish democracy.
At any point in those five days did you feel closer to Moncloa?
No. It is very clear to me that the current pedrismo does not have a project for Spain. Your goal is to resist. If he had resigned, he would have achieved another impact, as the Portuguese prime minister did, and he would have left a certain halo of late coherence. But it is clear that he would put another person from the PSOE. And, as long as the PSOE needs separatism, and it, in turn, needs pedrismo, we will only reach the government through elections, which is what I believe. It is the weakest government in democracy, which has lost the elections and which depends on its partners, the separatists.
And with regard to Pedro Sánchez’s appeal for political regeneration, don’t you do a bit of self-criticism and admit that you have sometimes gone too far in criticizing the Government? Above all, including the family and personal environment of the president.
I submit to the comparison of my interventions with the qualifiers that the President of the Government and all his entourage have dedicated to me. I have been constantly insulted for two years, and I can assure you that he has power, because a Prime Minister has never used the institutions of the State so much. From the 16 million that are spent to conduct surveys through Tezanos – president of the CIS–. It seems that the president thinks that we Spaniards must all be Tezanos. I got into national politics in May. The polls are starting to show how the PP is taking off and, from July, a campaign against me begins, with the “incompetent or bad faith” thing. Then, they invented the phachosphere thing. Now they are with the mud. It is a factory of disqualifications. I have been slandered in Congress, saying that I had given a subsidy to a company with which my partner had a business relationship, and that was proven to be false. Sánchez looked like a hooligan instead of the Prime Minister. But, if we compare, I can assure you that during these years, from the point of view of disqualifications, I have acted more as president, and he, more as leader of the opposition.
You are part of a party that ten years ago investigated the president’s family environment from the Ministry of the Interior and said “we must kill Sánchez politically”, they turned to ex-commissioner Villarejo and Manos Limpias. I can’t believe you agree with these practices.
First, I don’t agree with it and, second, I have my doubts that it is true. Because, if we believe everything Villarejo has said, we could believe one thing and the opposite. In fact, I heard that Villarejo had a pretty cordial relationship with Sánchez’s father-in-law. You should really know what the truth is.
But I will not deny that there was false information created by the plot, published in the press and then used by you in Congress. Doesn’t he make any self-criticism about Operation Catalonia?
I do all the self-criticism that is necessary, and the best proof of this is that we won the elections in 2016 and then there was a motion of no confidence and we went to the opposition. I think we’ve paid enough for any kind of inappropriate attitude we’ve had, but I think what’s surrounding Villarejo is probably one more scam. It’s in a summary. Be clear, be specific and let’s accept the judicial truth as a political truth. But I reiterate that Sánchez’s blunders have been constant. His political career is firmly established. All the presidents of the government have had much more dignity. He has deceived his party, his ministers. He has used the direction of the State. He has deceived you. How can a gentleman who deceives everyone all the time be president of the Government?
If you become Prime Minister, should your wife continue to work in her current job?
Absolutely. My wife is a better professional than I am. What I do say is that he cannot work with contracts or intervening or recommending companies that are public tenderers. The laws say so. There is an administrative type, which is the conflict of interest, which is in the law of high officials, and there is a criminal type, which is influence peddling, which is in the code. So of course he has to work. What he cannot do is interfere in what is public, in contracts or in companies that have a relationship with the public sector.
This is not proven…
It is information that you publish. Or is what your colleagues post all biased? Is all the Spanish press that dares to comment on the business activities of the Prime Minister’s wife biased journalism? When letters of recommendation signed by the Prime Minister’s wife appear in public contracts, does this not require reflection? When companies that have contracts with the public administration have sponsored a chair to a person who does not have a university degree, does this not attract attention?
Does this seem more serious to you than the case of tax fraud by the partner of the President of the Government of Madrid?
I appreciate you asking me this question. The President of the Government has asked me in his parliamentary session to resign as the President of the Community of Madrid. That’s sexism, isn’t it? Has the person you quote made contracts with the Community of Madrid? No. And has the president of the Community of Madrid done something suspicious? I no longer say something illegal, something suspicious, nothing. The president of the Community of Madrid has nothing to do with a matter of a person who is her current partner. Sánchez sees the straw in the eyes of others and does not see the beam in his own.
Let’s talk about the elections in Catalonia. Do you think the result will influence the future of the Spanish legislature?
Look, I think, with all due respect, Illa is here for whatever the president needs, and that’s very bad for Catalonia. He says in the polls that Illa can get more votes. The problem is that he does not have a plan, because Illa cannot be president if Mr. Sánchez does not authorize him. Therefore, I have the feeling that Catalonia will be relegated once again, without a plan, without a project, without talking about the problems of the Catalans again. The Catalan elections will be a wild card for Mr. Sánchez to continue resisting as Prime Minister in the face of his parliamentary minority and his essential need for separatism.
Does he think that Illa can be a subordinate option, even if he wins the election, to allow a pro-independence leader to be the president?
Yes, yes I believe so. Illa is good-natured, but not trustworthy. He is the political leader who has established the most pacts with Catalan independence. If you take the number of municipalities and councils in Catalonia, the PSC has more agreements with independence than independence among themselves. Therefore, he calls for the constitutionalist vote to hand over power to separatism. Sánchez has gone wrong with the visionary fraud and the pro-independence parties have gone wrong with the process.
For your goal of reaching Moncloa, who would you prefer to win on Sunday? Island or Puigdemont?
That the PP of Catalonia was decisive in Catalan politics. It’s my goal. Look, I’m going to a meeting in Badalona now. When one votes differently, the results are different and can be better. Badalona is the accreditation that there can be a Catalonia different from the one that exists.
You have admitted that the PP has maintained indirect contacts with Puigdemont. I understand that he will not explain it to us now, and even less during the election campaign, but when the Amnesty law is approved and it comes to Catalonia, would you keep in touch with him?
My first speech in Congress was the investiture speech. I was four seats short of an absolute majority to be president. The fundamental reason is because I did not want to deceive Catalonia again, nor did I want to deepen or resurrect a process that is negative. I did not accept the proposal sent to me by Junts to approve the Amnesty law, which the PSOE did approve. I didn’t fool anyone. The amnesty is illegal and I did not want to be president of the government in exchange for a measure that, in hindsight, I know is illegal. Sánchez has always used Catalonia to assert the presidency of the Government. Without Catalonia, he would only be a member of the parliamentary group, and what was decisive for him to be president today were the 19 seats of the PSC and the 6 of the PP of Catalonia.
He hasn’t answered me, would he see Puigdemont?
Let’s see, has Puigdemont committed sedition, has he committed rebellion or has he committed nothing? I want Puigdemont to submit to the law and, as former president of the Generalitat, he is the first Catalan who must obey the law. Puigdemont must reconcile with the law. And, after that, anything is possible. Of course, talk and converse. But if one does not reconcile with the law and believes himself superior to the rest of his citizens, you will understand that this does not allow me to maintain a reflection or approach.
But, on the other hand, would you accept without problems the support of Junts in a motion of censure?
Together, it has been used so that Mr. Sánchez is president of the Government and he believes that in his fair measure they will receive Sánchez’s support to exercise the presidency. It is a question between Junts and the PSOE. I have not deceived Junts and I am convinced that the PSOE has, but we will see, as you say, after the elections.
And what does the PP hope to achieve in these elections?
We hope that the autonomist vote and the constitutionalist vote will be concentrated, because when we add the vote we multiply the seats. And, to all those who believe that the process has been a lousy business for Catalonia and a social fracture, I ask them to trust in constitutionalism. We have a plan for Catalonia and it is to talk about things again. Why has Catalonia lost economic leadership in our country? Why is crime increasing, recidivism increasing, illegal occupation of homes increasing? Why do taxes go up and the debt and the deficit go up at the same time? Why is more money spent on embassies than on desalination plants? Why can’t Catalonia return to the coexistence it always had? Catalonia’s future cannot be made with the same people who managed the past. Sánchez has one project: to stay in power, and Puigdemont, another, to continue the process and we all ask for his forgiveness. Catalonia cannot be subjected to this cage of the process or Sanchism. It must open the doors of the cage, which politically want to restrain it and open a new stage.
And then come the European ones…
We all vote in the European elections. Galicians voted in Galicia and the PSOE has remained the last political force. In Euskadi, the big news is that a party inherited from a terrorist gang has been whitewashed by the Government and could govern at any moment. The European ones will be a good gauge of the current political situation.
And what is your feeling? Do you think that Pedro Sánchez could finish the legislature under these conditions that you assume?
Sánchez has always done what interested him and still does. If he has votes in Congress, he will stay there. In July it will be one year since the election and he has done nothing. He has not even presented the budgets. I am not saying that he approves them, but he has the obligation to present them. We have spent the first quarter of the legislature with a bill that was not even a bill debated in the Courts, but rather a bill, the amnesty.
Do you think that some budgets can be approved before the end of the legislature?
This is a Government hijacked by the electoral results and we have not been held accountable this year, 2024, and no one knows if Spain will contribute a budget in 2025, because it does not depend on Sánchez, it depends on Puigdemont, and, secondly, on ERC. Right now what would correspond would be to vote again. Until then, Spain has no plan, no government, and the president has lost his dignity. It is the worst period of the 45 years we have lived in democracy. Age of frivolity, falsehood, appearance, resistance. Sánchez’s mandate is barren and will be barren as long as it lasts.
Are you satisfied with your relationship with Vox in the different regional governments that coexist?
I believe that my colleagues, regional presidents, take their electoral program seriously. There are no breaches in the PP program. Income tax and inheritance tax have been lowered. They have approved the budgets and provided stability.
But they have taken controversial decisions, such as the Concordia law, which has been criticized by the UN as violating fundamental human rights…
The first thing we need to know exactly is whether it is a UN report in the strict sense. I have read in some media that it is not the voice of the UN in the strict sense. It would be surprising if they sneaked another falornia. What I can assure you is that, on historical memory, we are very clear in the PP. We believe that the Franco regime was a dictatorship and that ETA was a terrorist group. The Government has no autonomy to say this about ETA.
