Feijóo, trapped between Trump and the Pope

MadridAdamantly defending Spain's traditional alliances while the military and dialectical escalation of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu increases puts the PP in a complicated situation. Alberto Núñez Feijóo has so far avoided confrontation with the United States and Israel even when they have attacked one of the pillars of Spanish conservatives, such as Catholicism. The Popular Party remained on the sidelines when the Israeli government vetoed Palm Sunday mass in the Holy Land, and now that the President of the USA has targeted Pope Leo XIV, Feijóo has been caught between the two.

It is true that, unlike the silence maintained when Israel prevents the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem from reaching the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, on this occasion the popular leader has spoken out about the controversy, but has done so with an indirect criticism without directly mentioning Trump. "Christianity is an ethical and moral beacon for millions of people in the world, which should not be trifled with," Feijóo wrote on X this Monday after the confrontation between the Pope and the US president over the former's condemnation of the war in Iran. The condemnation of the former to the war in Iran. "Pope Leo XIV is a reference for Catholics who must be heard and respected," insisted Feijóo in a message along the lines of the PP's stance to avoid confrontation with Trump.

The PSOE has mocked this lukewarmness. The socialist spokesperson in Congress, Patxi López, has asked "who the PP is with". "Surely with Trump again. We, with the Pope", he reiterated at a press conference this Tuesday. Socialist sources emphasize the contradiction that the parties competing for the Catholic electorate, such as PP and Vox, raise their tone less than the left in defense of the leader of the Catholic Church. Vox, a key ally of Trump in Spain and which did not comment yesterday, admitted this Tuesday that the US president "wanted to play the fool and went too far" and stressed that "the Pope's mission is not to submit to the scrutiny of any politician".

In parallel, the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE) has expressed its rejection of Trump's attitude and of the image shared by the US president, generated with artificial intelligence, in which he appears as if he were a God healing a sick man. "Like some kind of Christ or antichrist", stated the president of the CEE, Luis Argüello, this Tuesday in a discussion with the popular deputy Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, who avoided the topic.

Cryptic messages

Thus, the popular strategy is to try to assert one's own profile, but without bothering its Western allies, the United States and Israel. Feijóo has deployed this plan with cryptic messages. The leader of the Spanish opposition, faced with the unfulfilled threat of the annihilation of Iranian civilization that Trump made last week, reacted thus on X: "In delicate moments, we need common sense, not brutality. The West is not that." In this way, the popular leader did not directly mention either the president of the US or his challenge to the Iranian regime.

The policy of alliances

The PP intends to discredit Sánchez for the role he has adopted internationally as an antithesis to Trump and Netanyahu and, with this week's official trip, for his rapprochement with China. According to the Popular Party, this is an irresponsibility that reveals him as just another populist. This is the framework he has tried to establish after the electoral defeat of Hungary's Viktor Orbán. The PP has branded Sánchez "the Orbán of the south" and has predicted that he will be the next to fall from government due to the rise of the Popular Party. However, the PSOE sees this as a lesson to the PP in the State, which makes pacts with Vox, since Abascal's party is from the same political family as Orbán. "The Orbán of the south is Abascal and whoever makes pacts with him is Feijóo," replied López.