The lesson Feijóo has learned from Aznar
BarcelonaWhen Alberto Núñez Feijóo stepped out onto the balcony the PP (People's Party) has prepared for important occasions at its headquarters on Génova Street in Madrid on June 23rd, a good portion of the unconditional supporters who had gathered on that city artery had already abandoned him. Despite the pomp the party intended to give him, including confetti cannons and Isabel Díaz Ayuso holding her own alongside the PP leader, the conservatives' faces bore the brunt of their own derision. They were certain that Feijóo had failed in the objective for which they had enthroned him just a year earlier. He had won the elections, yes, but he hadn't obtained a parliamentary majority sufficient to govern: an essential condition in any parliamentary system, even if the Popular Party (PP) insisted on imposing the narrative that the winning party is the one that should govern, as if Spain were a presidential system. After two years of ups and downs and trying to weather the pressures from the Ayuso faction, Feijóo now claims to have learned "his lesson."
"Now there are two types of politicians: those who win and govern, and those who don't. Consequently, I have taken good note of this lesson," he asserted this Friday, flanked by José María Aznar and Mariano Rajoy. These are the two former presidents with whom he reflects on having achieved the milestone that, for the moment, has eluded the Galician. "It will not only be necessary to win an investiture, but also a parliamentary majority that gives continuity to constitutional Spain," Aznar warned him. Feijóo's dream would be to return to the era of absolute majorities achieved by Aznar himself and also by Rajoy, or to replicate their four absolute majorities in Galicia. "The aspiration I will not give up on is to once again be the party of 10 million voters," Feijóo asserted this Saturday. But it is clear that the current scenario, with Vox on the rise, makes that more than unviable. There's only one variable that inspires optimism in the ranks of the People's Party (PP), and that could be Feijóo's springboard to the Moncloa presidency in the event of an early election: the Cerdán case, which is cornering Pedro Sánchez's PSOE.
"Political centrality"
Conservatives are banking on this alleged corruption scandal to give their leader a chance of taking advantage of what will be his last chance to become president of the Spanish government. The pro-Ayus faction of the party will not give more credit to Feijóo, who has been setting the pace since becoming president of the party. That's why this Saturday Feijóo asserted that he is committed to a strategy based on "political centrality," to seduce the socialists who no longer trust Sánchez and to look toward the Catalan and Basque nationalists. Aznar, whom he has presented as his ideological reference, "I joined in 2000 when I heard President Aznar at the 1999 Seville Congress when he said that the PP was a reformist center party. And he added that it was the common home of Christian democracy, the turning point, and he has affirmed." the former Spanish president over the years.
It may also end up being a dream for Feijóo to launch himself into "political centrality" when it is almost impossible for him to do without Vox if he wants to govern, as the polls already indicate, it is already at the municipal level and up to Feijóo to swallow the conditions that the far right wants to impose on them. A scenario that the hardline wing of the party is pushing for, so that Feijóo is not tempted to look to the other side of the political spectrum, where Junts and the PNV meet. Let's see if Feijóo also ends up internalizing.
