Ayuso, Fernández, Abascal, Puigdemont... the 'problems' Feijóo has caused in the PP

Barcelona / MadridHaving many open fronts and not addressing them, waiting for elections that never come. This is what's happening to PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who has accumulated a string of pending issues, either unaddressed or with multiple twists and turns. Some are haunting him this week and are expected to do so in the future. His relations with Vox, full of twists and turns, are one chapter, but he is also plagued by regional problems, such as the increasingly prominent one. leadership of the Valencian PP, he pulse resumed by the leader of the Catalan PP, in addition to latent ideological debates between the hardliners and the moderates. Even the territorial debate. Why doesn't he take on these challenges? Is it part of his leadership's character?

The challenge of men

He laissez-faire It goes beyond the free verse of Madrid's Isabel Díaz Ayuso, always present. Feijóo has decided not to intervene in the Valencian Country to relieve Carlos Mazón despite the disrespect and the plummeting polls for his management of the cold drop, which is being prosecutedIn parallel, the leader of the Catalan PP, Alejandro Fernández, the crusade has continued launched with the presentation of his book In underwear off (Esfera Libros, 2025), which raises a question mark over the party's "supervised" operating model in Catalonia by the state leadership. Despite the Discontent in Genoa over the book, He has not made any move and has even avoided making any assessments. Feijóo not only swallows men uncomfortable; since his arrival at the head of the PP in April 2022, with an extraordinary congress, a string of ideological issues have still not been addressed, which knowledgeable sources attribute to the fact that the party is divided on many issues, starting with abortion.

Some PP sources consulted by ARA emphasize that this lack of decisions, from the regional to all others, is explained by the fact that "it is considered that there are other priorities," such as attacking the Spanish government. Thus, the Pedro Sánchez factor and the "electoral mode" in which they are until the current state executive falls avoid starting these melons in an attitude that allows for some comparison with a former Spanish president of the People's Party: "He was also called Rajoy, but not making decisions is making decisions; abstracting those who seem to seem to be." Other PP sources point out that "all this is conditioned by the fact of being president of the Spanish government." On the one hand, because the main objective is "to make Feijóo president," but also because one has less authority as leader of the opposition. Official sources in Génova defend a model that respects "the autonomy" of the PP communities and deny that this is detrimental to Feijóo's leadership, which they do not see questioned.

Emeritus professor of political science at the UB, Joan Antón Mellón, maintains that Feijóo, like Mariano Rajoy, "has a way of letting issues fester," bearing in mind that "the PP is the first party in Spain, a catch-all (broad spectrum), and there are different sectors to please within the conservative subculture, from Margallo –more moderate– to Ayuso." Despite the similarities, he maintains that "Rajoy defended more principles typical of the Christian Democratic right" and adds that "Feijóo has an adaptive leadership based on the movements of "the Vox movement." Local powers are important" and that the fact of "avoiding conflict whenever possible" should also be understood from this perspective. Likewise, according to the political scientist at the Neula consultancy, Eli Gallardo, not making drastic decisions about dismissals has to do with "not having part of the party against them at the regional level." In his opinion, his "Ayuso's statements are called into question" is "a reason for mockery by other parties."

The far right

Opening debates in which there are conflicting interests of the autonomous communities, such as that of regional financing, is a headache for Feijóo, but the relationship with Vox is even more so, which is determined by the need for the votes of the far right in six communities. That the objective of obtaining power overrides ideological issues has been demonstrated by the budget negotiations in the Valencian Community and Murcia, where presidents Mazón and Fernando López Miras have not hesitated to criticize the Green Pact or to adopt the migration discourse of the far right with Feijóo's endorsement. to gain the support of Vox. Meanwhile, Santiago Abascal's party is making people pray, thus wearing down the Popular Party, which has been left at their mercy.

While the PP allows itself to be dragged into the immigration and climate debates, it does attack the issue of US tariffs, given the "importance" the PP sees and the pressure from the business community, pointing to Vox's alignment with Donald Trump. "They believe that now, with the Trump uproar, a sector could return to the PP without doing anything," maintains political scientist Antón Mellón, while Gallardo warns that the increasingly right-wing leaning makes it understandable why he no longer talks about "capturing disaffected PSOE voters."

Catalonia

Feijóo closed the territorial debate in a false way after an initial "plurinational" approach—in the words of one of his deputy secretaries, Elías Bendodo—and the defense of "nationalities." He has also changed his relationship with the independence movement. He expressed his willingness to pardon former president Carles Puigdemont and later reversed himself, and today he is still open to talking with Junts, although at the same time he distances himself and He uses them as an argument to avoid making a pact with the Spanish government.PP sources consulted explain that "internal work is underway to address a proposal for infrastructure and financing" and that when a proposal is finalized, it will be made public. Other sources emphasize Feijóo's "regional" vocation and that these issues will receive a constructive proposal for the whole of Spain.