Feijóo closes ranks with the Popular Party men to avoid giving Sánchez any air time.

MadridIn the confrontation between Pedro Sánchez and Alberto Núñez Feijóo, one of the PP's weak points, which the PSOE is using, is the crisis management of some of its regional presidents. The most obvious case is the DANA tragedy ten months ago in the Valencian Community, which left a death toll of 228. But that's not the only case. This summer's fires in Castilla y León, Galicia, and Extremadura have put three regional leaders in the spotlight. men The PP has been criticized for its delayed response, the lack of resources available to deal with the out-of-control fires, and the limited regional investment in prevention policies. This Saturday, some 2,000 people demanded the resignation of the president of Castilla y León, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, over the regional management of the fires. In response to this, however, the PP leader has opted to close ranks, just as he ended up doing with Carlos Mazón. after an initial distancing, for not giving Sánchez any airtime.

Far from self-criticism, the PP's strategy is to blame the Spanish government for not having fully committed to helping the affected territories, accusing it of bad faith, which Feijóo attributes to an electoral calculation by the Socialists. An example of this line of thought is the action in the Senate, the PP's battleground par excellence for its absolute majority. The PP parliamentary group in the Upper House summoned four ministers at the end of August to provide explanations about the fires. However, no official from the affected autonomous regions, which have jurisdiction over the matter, has been summoned. This scenario is not part of the PP's plans, which in the Senate is already focusing at the start of the year on attacking Sánchez for the Cerdán case or the handling of the massive power outage on April 28. However, the opposition did force Mañueco to appear before the regional parliament, where most groups called for his resignation.

"I'm proud of the ordinary representatives of the State in the autonomous communities where the PP governs. I'm proud of all of them. We are defending our country from the autonomous communities," Feijóo proclaimed this Friday before Isabel Díaz Ayuso. at the event with which he counter-programmed the opening of the judicial year to the Supreme CourtWith this snub, Feijóo wanted to make it clear that this political year, in which regional elections are to be faced, the PP will not give Sánchez any respite or concede any victory by letting any of their own fall. menThe president of one of the affected regions, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco of Castile and León, is the first to face elections on the horizon, in early 2026.

Both Feijóo and Mañueco are ignoring calls for his resignation from the opposition in Castile and León. The controversial Minister of the Environment, Juan Carlos Suárez-Quiñones, who, in the midst of the crisis, went to a food fair in Gijón and justified it by saying he had "a bad habit of eating," is also staying put. Although he has been removed from the public agenda, the PP is closing ranks and, for the moment, avoiding the dismissals that Mazón was forced to make as a firewall to save himself. In any case, if the PP in Castile and León already saw that Vox was hot on their heels among the young electorate, the electoral prospects of the Popular Party, which aspires to govern alone, are becoming more complicated.

No bridge to understanding

Feijóo has rejected this week the Sánchez's proposal for a state pact against the climate emergency, despite the fact that some of its pillars coincide with some of the fifty measures presented last week by the People's Party (PP) to address the fires. For example, the need to improve coordination between administrations. The Spanish government proposes creating a state agency for civil protection and emergencies that "strengthens and guarantees the proper functioning of the system." On the People's side, there is talk of passing a law coordinating fire and rescue management services and "establishing objective and transparent criteria to mobilize all the resources of public administrations, under the leadership of professionals with proven experience." However, in this climate of confrontation, the PP will not sit down or even talk.

The challenge of forgiveness

Genoa's policy towards the men It is to respect their autonomy and avoid confrontation with them in order to maintain an internal balance that, when Pablo Casado led the party, proved fragile. Feijóo has also not touched Ayuso's bark in the face of the scandal surrounding the prosecution of her boyfriend for tax fraud or deaths in nursing homes during Covid-19Now, this principle, which guarantees Feijóo's survival at the head of the party, becomes a problem in the face of the Spanish government's proposal to forgive part of the debt of the regional liquidity fund (FLA), which benefits some PP-led communities more than others. For now, the reverse closing of ranks remains in place, and Feijóo's team maintains that none of their own will fall into Sánchez's "trap."