This is Miguel Tellado, the new number two of the PP

MadridMiguel Tellado (Ferrol, 1974) will be the new deputy of the PP. It was no surprise that Alberto Núñez Feijóo chose his former right-hand man in the Galician PP to become the party's general secretary. When the PP leader made the leap into national politics in 2022, he was accompanied by Tellado. Once Feijóo was ratified as president of the PP, replacing Pablo Casado, he surrounded himself with his Galician core group in Génova. One of those loyalists is Tellado, who left his seat as regional deputy and the party's general secretary in Galicia to move to Madrid. Once in the Spanish capital, Tellado has performed all the Auca roles that Feijóo has decided to entrust him with. The most recent, and the one that has made him most famous, is that of spokesperson in Congress, where he has been known for employing a tough tone and constantly clashing with the Socialists. In the new era that the PP is embarking on, starting with this weekend's congress, Feijóo is bringing him back to put internal order and prepare the party to achieve the coveted goal of reaching the Moncloa Palace.

Why Tellado? The political careers of Feijóo and the man who will be his deputy in Génova are closely linked. After so many years working side by side, Tellado has the PP leader's utmost confidence, a highly valued attribute for a secretive party leader wary of sharing information, even with members of the leadership he himself has chosen. Although Feijóo has tried to recruit people from other regions since his arrival in Génova, in practice he always ends up turning to Galicians for the tasks that involve leading the party. This is what happened with Tellado after he initially appointed Cuca Gamarra, from the Riojan PP, as general secretary, who also came from Pablo Casado's time. The fit with Gamarra—who will continue in office as head of justice, interior, and defense—hasn't worked out, as has the case with Andalusian Elías Bendodo, whom Feijóo appointed as general coordinator in 2022, which would be equivalent to being number three. While these two profiles have been declining, Tellado's has been gaining a weight that, although from the shadows, he has in reality always had.

The new secretary general, when he made the leap to national politics a year and a half before the 2023 general elections, was appointed senator by regional designation alongside Feijóo and at the same time deputy secretary of organization, a position that already entailed having organizational responsibilities and dealing with regional officials. A particularly delicate task when he took it just after the previous leader, Pablo Casado, fell out due to the war with the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso. Tellado, with his harsh tone, in fact serves as a bridge between Feijóo and the party's most hardline wing. In this sense, in Congress, the current parliamentary spokesperson has teamed up with Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo. Génova's leap to the head of the largest parliamentary group in the lower house came in November 2023, shortly after the July 23 elections, which left frustration among the Popular Party (PP) ranks, already visible in the Spanish government. Faced with this scenario, Feijóo entrusted one of his most faithful and implacable executors to guarantee its functioning once it was accepted that the 137 deputies would have to resign themselves to being the opposition.

In Congress, Tellado has left very few loopholes for voices that could deviate from the official line and has imposed Génova's argument point by point. In the Tuesday press conferences in the Lower House, the content of the PP spokesperson's speech was copied, sometimes word for word, from what Feijóo's entourage conveyed to the PP headquarters. However, Tellado's style of speech was particularly harsh. With his rise to the media spotlight, the parliamentary spokesperson has acted as a battering ram against the Spanish government with harsh remarks and an attitude not conducive to dialogue with his political adversary. The deterioration of relations not only with the PSOE and Sumar, but also with other parties such as Junts and the PNV, was evident this Tuesday with the failure of Feijóo's request to Tellado to open contacts with Sánchez's parliamentary allies to explore the possibility of a vote of no confidence. He has been particularly harsh on the Speaker of Congress, Francina Armengol, who has even gone so far as to ask Feijóo to intervene to stop some of the scuffles in the chamber sparked by the PP spokesperson.

Now that Feijóo sees the end of his term approaching due to the Santos Cerdán case, with his parliamentary activity practically blocked by the alleged corruption scandals within the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), the PP leader is once again moving his squire around to prepare the party for the upcoming elections. Tellado was, in fact, secretary general of the PP in Galicia between 2016 and 2022, and led the last regional election campaigns when Feijóo was head of the Galician regional government and won an absolute majority. With the task of rebuilding the party at this congress, which he intends to be a prelude to his arrival at the Moncloa Palace, he is once again entrusting Tellado with that role within the party, now at the state level.

The rise of Ester Muñoz

In parallel to Tellado's, there is the promotion of Ester Muñoz (León, 1985). "They are two young people who also have experience, both organically in the case of Tellado and parliamentarily in the case of Ester," Feijóo stressed when he announced the changes in Antena 3Muñoz is eleven years younger than Tellado and has also had the endorsement of the PP leader for less time. In 2023, she made the leap to Congress as a deputy and also joined the PP leadership as deputy secretary of education and health. In recent months, she has been gaining public prominence with increasing appearances in the lower house and also at party press conferences, where she has adopted a harsh tone in line with that of Tellado, who has shown her confidence. Party sources suggest that the new spokesperson, who is also the provincial president of the PP in León, will maintain a line of continuity with that established by Tellado, and Muñoz has already promised "firmness" in this "historic moment" with a Spanish executive in "decomposition."