It was the great challenge of Núñez Feijóo at the head of the Popular Party and he has not yet faced it. The new PP is still unresolved in its relationship with Vox, the far-right party to which Feijóo will grant the wish not to call it by its name: “If Vox doesn’t want us to call it far-right, I won’t call it,” he said a few days ago . Accustomed to a political scene, the Galician, without the presence of Vox, when taking the helm of Genoa Feijóo begins to put black on white what his position is with respect to those of Abascal, and is not far from the one drawn by Paul Married.
“The PP and Vox are not the same”, Feijóo has repeated on numerous occasions. When asked why, he points out three major differences: they (per Vox) are anti-European, they reject the State of Autonomies and they have no management experience. But the president of the Popular Party avoids confronting Vox in his speech against immigration, women or the LGTBI collective. Neither does he position himself on the possibility of replicating the pact in Castilla y León at a national level. The same recipe of the previous Executive, because more than a month after his party crowned him as president and staged a return to “moderation”, the PP of Núñez Feijóo has not given any sign of distancing himself from the extreme right .
political scientist and analyst Edward Bayon points out that behind this sustained collusion there would be Feijóo’s “attempt” “to compete between blocks instead of resolving the battle with Vox.” “What they need is to internalize the new competition coordinates, with two blocks made up of two parties in turn, and present the battle as quickly as possible,” he reflects to Public the also political scientist and analyst Daniel Vicente Guisado.
According to Bayón, Núñez Fiejóo is already showing that it is Vox who sets the pace for his moderation. “There will be times when they will have to distance themselves more and times when they will go further to the right; he will not be able to make a very centrist speech because he is going to be governing with Vox,” he says.
His destiny, tied to Vox
The polls say so. The latest barometer available, made by 40db for The country and Cadena Ser, was published last Wednesday and the results they show are positive for a PP that is willing to govern hand in hand with the extreme right. According to this survey, the Popular Party and Vox would touch the absolute majority and the right would have a chance to govern if Feijóo agrees to do so by agreeing with Santiago Abascal.
Vincent Guisado is clear in this sense: “As long as there is no possibility of making pacts that are not ideological, the fate of the PP is tied to that of Vox. In fact, it is a relationship that both need. The first, to touch power, and the second , to show that they are more than a mere protest party, that they know how to manage.”
And Genoa performs tightrope walking exercises to hide the contradictions generated by the political board. The official argument of Feijóo’s PP plays down the importance of the data produced by the polls, and what is already a reality in some territories such as Castilla y León, and insists on the horizon of governing alone. But, at the same time, he maintains a softened discourse with the ideological positions of those of Abascal, aware of the more than possible need for understanding that both formations will have.
Feijóo assures that the extreme right is a “split” of his own party, the PP. “Who is most affected is the center-right, and who benefits most is those on the other side,” says the popular president in reference to the progressive bloc. “I am convinced that many Vox voters, if they see us as an alternative and if people do not want to continue with this government, they have to vote for the alternative,” he assured on another occasion. His references to Vox are increasing, but in these lines Feijóo’s position is summed up so far. No changes from the previous stage of the match.
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