The PP's archive: why does it end up adopting the PSOE's laws?

BarcelonaSpanish politics is the scene of a total confrontation between the government and its detractors, but history shows that promises of total rupture by the opposition often end up diluted when entering the Moncloa Palace. Alberto Núñez Feijóo's People's Party has a whole series of laws that it has promised to repeal when it governs, as Mariano Rajoy had previously done, for example. What was the result after becoming president?

The most emblematic case is that of the same-sex marriage law. Approved on June 30, 2005 under the impetus of former socialist president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the norm received a frontal opposition from the PP, led at that time by Mariano Rajoy, who not only rejected the substance of the matter, but especially the use of the word "marriage" to define the union between two people of the same sex. The Populars filed a declaration of unconstitutionality that kept the law in legal limbo for seven years. But while the legal battle was fought in Madrid, reality imposed itself at the party's grassroots: on April 8, 2006, Feijóo, then leader of the Galician PP, attended the wedding of a homosexual councilor from his party in Ourense. When the Constitutional Court finally validated the law in 2012, Mariano Rajoy's government, despite enjoying an absolute majority, decided not to touch it, and in 2015 the definitive acceptance occurred, when Rajoy and the entire party leadership attended the wedding of Javier Maroto, former mayor of Vitoria.The initial pattern of resistance and subsequent acceptance was repeated with the 2005 divorce law. The reform of the Civil Code that allowed marital dissolution without the need to allege specific causes was branded by the PP as a measure that turned marriage into a mere "contract" without institutional weight. However, when Rajoy came to power, he not only maintained the law, but in 2015 went further with the approval of divorce before a notary, allowing couples without minor children to separate in a matter of minutes. A similar story was experienced with the 2010 abortion law, which was challenged by the Popular Party before the Constitutional Court with the promise of returning to the "restrictive model" of 1985. But the weight of social reality was stronger. In 2011, with the Popular Party's return to government, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, Minister of Justice, attempted a harsh reform that Rajoy himself ended up blocking for fear of electoral wear and tear and public pressure. The result was Gallardón's resignation and a minimal tweak to the permission for minors, leaving the bulk of the socialist law fully in force.Management and memory: when ideology clashes with budget and health

There are other areas where the promises of repeal have not clashed so much with moral questions as with the pragmatism of daily management or the lack of budget. The Historical Memory Law of 2007 was described by Rajoy himself as an "error" that only served to "divide Spaniards", but once in Moncloa he did not officially repeal it. He opted for a more subtle approach: "budgetary repeal", leaving the allocation for its implementation at zero euros for the entire legislature. With the 2010 anti-smoking law, something similar happened, but for public health reasons. Although Rajoy considered it "excessive" and the former president of the Community of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, branded it an "attack on freedom", when the PP came to power, the Minister of Health, Ana Mato, confirmed that not "one comma" would be changed, taking into account the social success of the regulation and the improvement of health indicators.

Another poignant contradiction was experienced in the economy. During the 2011 campaign, Rajoy promised to lower taxes to boost consumption, and harshly criticized Zapatero's "inoperability" for having raised VAT. However, the reality of public accounts and the "hidden deficit" led the PP to approve one of the largest tax increases in democracy: the general VAT jumped from 18% to 21%, in addition to a notable increase in personal income tax.