Feijóo renounces English and trusts his mobile: "It already translates it for me directly"

BarcelonaThe visit of Alberto Núñez Feijóo to the program El hormiguero, this Wednesday night, was a pleasant experience for the leader of the PP, whom Pablo Motos invited on the same day that José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was testifying as investigated in the National Court. The platform that Antena 3 provided the popular politician to attack the PSOE, however, took a turn just at the end of the interview, when Feijóo had to admit that he does not speak English.

"One last question: how is your English?", Motos asked him, perhaps not expecting the leader of the opposition in Spain to respond with "badly". "Badly is that you don't touch it?", the journalist inquired. "No, I don't touch it because now this [referring to the mobile phone] already translates it for me directly", Feijóo added. "You use the translator?", the presenter wanted to confirm. "Yes", the conservative politician acknowledged.

In an attempt to justify a question that was compromising his interlocutor, Motos let slip "No, I'm not saying it because of English...", making it clear that linguistic skills in this language are important for a candidate to preside over the government of Spain. The PP leader acknowledged that English "is an elementary tool", but wanted to take refuge in his childhood: "Listen, this studying in a rural school has some problems".

What followed this sentence was an uncomfortable silence and a final phrase from Feijóo: "Well, and other advantages," he said, at which point Motos quickly ended the interview. The interview made it clear that, unlike his main rival in the polls, President Pedro Sánchez, who speaks fluent English, Feijóo follows in the footsteps of his PP predecessors regarding his knowledge of this language.

Former president Mariano Rajoy, for example, openly admitted his problems with this issue and even refused questions from journalists in English. "English is difficult for me [...] In my generation, they didn't send us anywhere. I take classes and to speak with Obama, if I meet him at the gym, I can manage. What I can't do is give a speech on the deficit in English, but nobody does that, only the Nordics," he also said in an interview in December 2015, in this case on the program En tu casa o en la mía, presented by Bertín Osborne.

Aznar's "friend

" and Zapatero's "thank you"

In the case of José María Aznar, his relationship with the American president George Bush, whom he called "my friend" with a particular accent, also highlighted his linguistic limitations. "Yesterday, I went to White House to talk president Bush. Why reason? One reason. Because he is my friend" is one of the most remembered phrases (with grammatical errors) from the former PP leader during his term.

Regarding the socialist ex-presidents, Zapatero also did not speak English. "Logically, I would have liked to know it, of course it's better," he said on one occasion to COPE, after a presidency during which he even responded "Thank you" to a journalist who asked him how a meeting with the then British prime minister Tony Blair had gone. Felipe González, in turn, had a greater command of French than English.

Beyond the importance for a country's president to master the languages spoken at international summits, where crucial geopolitical issues are decided, it should be taken into account that the percentage of people who do not speak, write, or read English in Spain has historically been over 60%, according to the Centre for Sociological Research (CIS).