Feijóo proposes to increase the penalties for disturbances with the face covered or called through social networks

BarcelonaAfter linking Pedro Sánchez to the disturbances last Saturday in Barcelona, the PP is already planning to reform the Penal Code to establish "order" in the face of situations like the one experienced in the Catalan capital. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who this Wednesday will visit businesses affected by the looting in the city, has announced that he will propose restoring the aggravating factor for those who commit "disturbances and acts of vandalism with their faces covered". And also when these types of incidents are called via social media, as happened in Barcelona. "I must be the guarantor of public order on the streets of our country," he defended in an interview with Onda Cero.

The leader and candidate for the PP has pulled from a securitarian discourse in the midst of a rapprochement with Vox and the day after sealing with Santiago Abascal's party the pact with Vox in 23 provinces to try to retain the absolute majority in the Senate after November 29th. After framing this understanding within his desire to do "everything possible to ensure there is a change in Spain," the Popular Party leader described the agreement as "essential" to combat the "coalition of the desperate" of the PSOE and the Broad Front, which are running together for the upper house. "Not responding was an irresponsibility [...] They have changed the rules of the game," he said, to downplay the understanding with the far-right -it is not a "merger", he said- and to limit the definition of Vox to a party that is "more disruptive" than the PP.

For weeks, the PP has already been openly talking about the possibility of governing with Vox, and Feijóo insisted in the interview that this change of position stems from the "duty" to end the "decadence" of Sanchismo, just as he claims a "majority" of Spaniards demand. And he illustrated it this way: "My commitment is not to play a song that I like so that the citizens of my country listen to it," he said, in reference to Sánchez's musical recommendations on social media. "My commitment is to have a president who doesn't dance at rallies, who doesn't kiss his partner," he added, about the kiss between the socialist leader and Begoña Gómez at a PSOE event, which has already become one of the images of the pre-campaign. "A president who doesn't lie, who doesn't steal, and who doesn't go on vacation when his country is being invaded. This is my commitment, the rest is instrumental," he stated again to justify the understanding with Santiago Abascal's party.

"It is not a merger with Vox"

The PP-Vox pact for the Senate, which deepens the policy of blocs, is a collaboration in 23 provinces to curb the left. The extreme right renounces presenting its own candidacy in six provinces, with the commitment that the PP will incorporate a candidate proposed by Vox into its own, while the populars will withdraw from three provinces in which they have never obtained representation or have not obtained it for decades (Tarragona, Girona, and Gipuzkoa). Despite his defense of the pact, Feijóo is aware of what it means to come to an understanding with the ultra-right, and for this reason, this Tuesday he insisted that it is not a "coalition" nor does it imply the "dissolution" or "fusion" of the head of either party: neither the PP, which he qualified as "center-right reformist," nor Vox, which he defined as a "more disruptive party".