When you need Ayuso to agree with you

BarcelonaWith Juanma Moreno Bonilla handed over to Vox, in the baron popular has lost, at least publicly, the moderate label it had earned by contrasting its ideological profile with that of Isabel Díaz Ayuso. The PP is convinced that if it wants Alberto Núñez Feijóo to reach Moncloa, it will have to be hand in hand with Vox. That is why the popular party has been paving the way for pacts with the far-right at the regional level and, in recent days, the popular leader has tried to join in. Of course, with his clumsy style and following a rather erratic line.

At the beginning of the week, Feijóo decided to adopt the law of the conceived but not born that the president of the Community of Madrid approved last week in the Madrid parliament. "When a woman is expecting a child, I understand that it must be reflected in public sector aid," the popular leader defended on Antena 3. He did not use the same arguments as Ayuso, who a few days earlier had defended the law with anti-abortion reasoning: "The conceived is a person from the first minute, and therefore has rights." More crude was his chief of staff, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez: "It means that, just when they have just fertilized it, before showering, what the woman has in her womb is a person with rights." With differences in style, Feijóo succeeded if the objective was to approach the more conservative electorate in debates that have always made the PP uncomfortable – like that of euthanasia or abortion. Once again, however, trailing Ayuso.

On the other hand, he clearly didn't succeed when he argued that workers should be paid less if they took sick leave – this already happens now – but especially when he described absenteeism as a "cancer". So much so that the spokesperson for the popular party, Borja Sémper, had to clarify his words and say that this term should be used with "caution" for comparisons – he himself recently overcame cancer a few months ago. However, just as Vox – and of course the left – were beginning to capitalize on Feijóo's gaffe, Ayuso threw him a lifeline on Thursday, when she came out to defend every one of his words and said that, despite the wording, the idea seemed correct to her: "He's more right than a saint".

When Isabel Díaz Ayuso agrees with you, it means that internally you have avoided a fire and that your message, outwardly, has shifted (even more) to the right. Is it of interest to Feijóo? If the strategy involves trying to win back voters who have switched from blue to green, surely yes, even though polls predict that, basically, the party that is growing is Vox. However, he probably also has a problem if he needs the Madrid president to prop up his discourse every time.

The details of the week