The Spanish right finds its Ruffian at the Equestrian Circle

BarcelonaWhile Gabriel Rufián travels the State defending his idea of unity of the left, the right also has someone preaching the same. Less popular, retired, but capable of filling the auditorium of the select Círculo Ecuestre between his obsessions with ETA and conspiracy theories. Jaime Mayor Oreja, former Minister of the Interior and former leader of the Basque PP, who boasted in 2009 that his great-grandfather had banned Basque at home to "get out of the barn," has managed to gather leaders from the PP (Alejandro Fernández at the forefront) and Vox (Joan Garriga). All in all, to send them a message: "There is an 85% of things that unite us, let's be capable of offering an alternative".

At the presentation of his book, An Inconvenient Truth (Espasa, 2026), he launched the message of right-wing unity to dethrone Pedro Sánchez, with a standing ovation from the club's members. He did so by recalling his political activity in Euskadi, marked by ETA's influence – which he says still exists –: "What is important are not the acronyms, it is the idea of Spain," he said. Mayor Oreja maintains that "ETA is the future," not just the past and present, and insisted that the 11-M was not caused by Islamists. Fernández defined him as a "point of reference" and praised his "commitment to the truth." The journalist and board member of Círculo, Ricard Fernández Deu, added that Mayor Oreja was "the best-rated Minister of the Interior" of democracy.

Without leaving the room, the cracks in the unity preached by Mayor Oreja were soon visible. Responding to the question of why the PP and Vox are not running together, posed by the moderator, Professor Nuria Chinchilla, Joan Garriga resorted to a long list of reproaches towards the Popular Party: "We have not reversed even one regional separatist law, not one "}pro-, the language used by Francoism.

It's not what it used to be"Vascongadas", the language used by Francoism.

It's not what it used to be

This Thursday at the Círculo there was overbooking, and some members had to watch the presentation standing up. And among those who were seated, there were also those who were not very engaged. One of the attendees was listening at full volume to an audio about agrarian reform and, later, another about the reform of the Constitution to protect the right to abortion, which caused great discomfort in the room, not only because of the noise, but because of the progressive content that was playing. Mayor Oreja, who does not like Basque, has also shown that he does not have much sympathy for Catalan either, by referring to Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira as ""José Luis", even though the former vice-president of the Generalitat staunchly defended his name "here and in the People's Republic of China".

Among the attendees, beyond financiers and various members, there was the circle of trust of Fernández i Garriga: the popular deputy Nacho Martín Blanco and the Sant Cugat councilor Alfredo Bergua swelled the ranks of the PP, with youth militants and the businessman and former president of the PP of Sarrià Isaac Martín-Salvà; for Vox, the Barcelona councilors Liberto Senderos and Gonzalo de Oro-Pulido made an appearance, who had difficulty sitting down because he arrived five minutes late.