Feijóo's strategy to fish votes from the PSC, Junts, and Vox at the same time

MadridThe PP's response to the European Court of Justice's (ECJ) endorsement of the application of amnesty to Carles Puigdemont is another demonstration of the strategy that Alberto Núñez Feijóo's party wants to apply in Catalonia. From Génova they argued that the focus on the "Procés" must be left behind to "open a new era that allows us to talk only about what Catalans need". "More housing, more doctors, lower taxes, and more security". This is the recipe that the PP leader already presented during the Catalan Popular Party congress three weeks ago. His aspiration is to ensure that the social and economic axis prevails over the national one and that his project is attractive, mainly with economic proposals, to voters from Junts, PSC, and Vox.

However, for now, according to the latest barometer from the Centre d’Estudis d’Opinió (CEO), Junts voters still feel more comfortable with Pedro Sánchez as Prime Minister of the Spanish government. Only 1% of respondents who identify with Junts would prefer Feijóo, while 36% would choose the socialist leader. Regarding vote transfer, the CEO also places the potential transfer from PSC and Junts to the Popular Party in Spanish elections at a meager 3%. A percentage that grows to 5% among Vox voters. However, more people who voted for the PP in 2023 could switch to the other three parties – 4% to PSC and Junts and up to 21% to Vox. Although in Génova they are aware of these difficulties, they are committed to educating through frequent visits to Catalonia, meetings with the business community, and trying to focus on what they call the "real problems".

One of those in charge of approaching sectors of Catalan society they aspire to attract with these proposals is the PP's Deputy Secretary for Finance, Juan Bravo, who within the popular leadership holds some of these economic files. In this regard, Bravo also deploys, on social networks, proposals for the self-employed, who are one of the groups that has been a recurring battle horse for the juntaires and has even been a condition for voting in favor of some of the Spanish government's proposals. Both parties, in fact, have defended similar positions on this matter, with proposals to reduce their tax burden, as has also happened with small property owners. Housing occupations, immigration, and citizen security – the main concerns of the far-right voter – are other matters on which the PP has focused.

It is not a strategy solely for Catalonia, but attracting voters from both the PSOE and Vox to the PP is also an objective throughout the State, as former popular president José María Aznar recently expressed. Not only with economic proposals, but also by taking advantage of the socialists' weariness due to the corruption scandals surrounding Sánchez. However, in the case of Catalan parties in Congress, and also Basque ones, such as the PNB, judicial cases against the PSOE have not been a sufficient argument to bet on Feijóo and, in fact, the alliance with Vox to govern in four autonomous communities, which could be replicated in Moncloa, makes it difficult to fish for voters on the other side of the ideological and national axis, no matter how much programmatic coincidences there may be in economic policy.

A party in motion

The PP aims to project an image of a party that "makes brave proposals" to "change what doesn't work" and to be seen as an "alternative" to overcome the problems they attribute to the management of the PSOE and Sumar. And in this regard, programmatic proposals are not the only way to project this idea. The popular party has set its internal machinery in motion to prepare itself organizationally for the elections. They have done so with the recent renewal of the leadership of Catalonia and the New Generations, which had been a source of conflict, as well as with Feijóo's rally this weekend surrounded by the main candidates for the municipal elections. "Spain has a prepared alternative and we will deploy it in the coming months," they claim from Génova.