Feijóo promises to reopen the abortion debate and reform the euthanasia law

BarcelonaAlberto Núñez Feijóo begins to outline his conservative program for the Spanish elections on November 29th. The leader and candidate of the PP stated on SER that if he reaches the Moncloa he wants to reopen the debate on abortion and reform the euthanasia law, in an interview in which he openly accepted the scenario of a government with Vox to oust Pedro Sánchez from power. "I am a democrat," he said, regarding the possibility of having to rely on the ultra-right if he does not achieve a sufficient majority.

Perhaps for this reason he has focused on proposals that bring him closer to the theses of the far-right. The popular candidate said that he believes that if a 16-year-old girl wants an abortion, her parents must have "knowledge" of the decision and he has committed to putting this debate on the table. At the same time, however, he also spoke of "authorization": "Do you think a 16-year-old girl needs her parents' authorization to get a tattoo and doesn't need it to have an abortion?", he emphasized. Regarding euthanasia, and despite admitting that a dignified death is a concept with which he is "in agreement," he confirmed that if he reaches the Moncloa he will reform the law that regulates it to strengthen certain medical guarantees in the process.

"Welcome to 1989. Mr. Feijóo has once again called into question the rights conquered by women and the rights also conquered by the citizenry in the matter of being able to have a dignified death and being able to decide over our lives," reacted the Minister of Health, Mónica García. "I don't know what is wrong with the Popular Party regarding women, I don't know what we women have done to them," she added in statements to the media.

Feijóo, in fact, also revealed that he would eliminate the Ministry of Equality as such: "I will put it inside other ministries, I will not maintain 22 ministries [...] I will tell the Minister of Equality to take charge of other things and not just Equality," he said. And he drove the point home by responding to the question of whether he considers himself a feminist: "How can I not be a feminist if I was raised, in my home, with many more women than men?", he said, reproducing one of the most repeated excuses from chauvinism. "Being raised among women does not make you a feminist. Defending their rights does," replied the Spanish President, Pedro Sánchez, through X, and he ironically noted that "Feijóo is so feminist that he proposes getting rid of the Ministry of Equality and cutting the right of women to decide over their own bodies."

All in all, after opening the door without complexes to a government with Vox in order to reach the Moncloa. "I cannot rule out listening to what the Spanish people tell me. If they ask me to complete the majority with the third political force of my country, I am a democrat," he said. The Popular Party candidate, who said he will try to govern even if it is not the most voted list —although three years ago he criticized Sánchez for doing the same—, has assured that in a pact with the far right there would be "red lines". At the same time, however, he has reaffirmed his commitment to repealing the democratic memory law, in line with the proposals of Santiago Abascal's party.

In parallel to the flirting with a coalition government with Vox, the alliance with the ultra-right is making its way into the Senate. After confirming a few days ago the negotiations for the lists, Feijóo has implicitly askedVox not to run in some provinces to maximize the results of the right-wing parties in the upper house, from where they could force a conservative majority in the Constitutional Court. "It will depend on the will of Vox if it wants to renounce running in provinces where it does not have a senator," he said. "It would be logical," he added, avoiding at all times confronting the far right. When he was asked about the Vox candidate for Tarragona, with a neo-Nazi past, for example, Feijóo said that he would not get into that, since "everyone has the responsibility of who they bring on the lists".

He qualifies Milei's "language" and vindicates his "economic policy"

He also did not want to stir up trouble with the visit of the Argentine president, Javier Milei, to Spain, which shook the pre-campaign this week. The leader of the Popular Party has admitted that he does not share the insults he launched at Sánchez and the left during his events in Madrid, but he downplayed it. "I do not share the language or the manner of Mr. Milei, but it is a language that in Argentine politics is less striking than in Spanish," Feijóo clarified in an interview with SER. Furthermore, he claimed that the ultra politician "is carrying out a much more sensible economic policy" than what Peronism did in Argentina. "Objectively, and with the statistics in hand, he has reduced poverty for millions of Argentines," he said, after avoiding committing to raising the minimum wage and assuring, however, that he is committed to updating pensions annually with the CPI.

In the opinion of the number one of the Broad Front for Madrid, Emilio Delgado, Feijóo's statements show that Milei "has lent the chainsaw" to the PP leader: "It only works downwards by cutting people's rights," he lamented, while Minister Pablo Bustinduy denounced that "the only proposal" of the Popular Party is "to dismantle acquired rights".