We type the name of Alberto Feijóo - with Núñez in the middle, impossible - in a social network and first an Alberto Feijóo who lives in Lima appears and then he. In the profile photograph he is seen in a restaurant with a glass of red wine in front of him and a beautiful perspective of the city of Segovia behind. He responds quickly to the message we left him, half suspicious and surprised: let's see what elmundo.es is asking about me, he must have thought of.
We explained to him that we are interviewing citizens who are called the main candidates for the general elections and he gives us the surprise. He not only shares a name with the PP candidate but also a family tree. Although he has never met Alberto Núñez Feijóo nor wanted to bother him by letting him know about their relationship, the truth, he says, is that they are second cousins.
The politician's maternal grandfather, Manuel Feijóo Iglesias, and his paternal grandfather, Marcial Feijóo Iglesias, were brothers. Later, our protagonist's mother, Mari Carmen, who knows best the family's Galician roots, will give us details of the blood ties.
Alberto Feijóo Benito, 46 years old, married and with three children between 15 and 8 years old, welcomes us at his home in San Rafael (Segovia). In the entry hallway is a mirror taped to a quote attributed to British writer and academic C.S. Lewis: "You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending."
The windows of the living room are already somewhat covered with fog, a sign that the cold is approaching the town: about 2,600 inhabitants 30 kilometers from Segovia and 60 from Madrid.
-Are you going to vote on 29-N?
-Yes, yes, I always vote. Except when my second daughter was born, when I was caught in the hospital and I didn't ask to vote by mail. But they were municipal, which is what makes me the laziest, the elections that demotivate me the most.
-Can we know what he votes for?
-I prefer not to say.
-But do you always vote the same?
-No, no, over.
-To the point of jumping from left to right or vice versa?
-Yeah.
-And what does it depend on to make such a turn?
-Of many things, corruption for example. It is something that I do not understand, especially in the left-wing parties, which supposedly defend the working class and it seems to me that this is not so much the case. It is the working class that is becoming poorer, that is suffering from the increase in the price of things: milk, bread, fuel...
-Have you decided on your vote?
-No. I guess I won't decide until the last minute, but it's not something that worries me either. Yes, I am clear about who I am not going to vote for: neither Sánchez nor the left that goes hand in hand with him.
-The Broad Front?
-That.
Alberto Feijóo is employed in road maintenance and it is precisely in his job that he places the first anecdote he offers us when we ask him if being called Alberto Feijóo makes him the butt of many jokes. "One Monday a colleague tells me: 'How did you sweep it yesterday, eh?'. 'But I didn't come to work yesterday.' 'In the Galician elections, man.'"
He also mentions his participation in a radio contest on the Rock FM program El Pirata y su banda. "Álex Clavero himself [comedian, screenwriter, actor] introduced me: 'This contestant's name is Alberto Feijóo, he is the president of Galicia but he calls us from the town of San Rafael. Good morning, president, how are things going? Let's see if you're lucky and win the 100 euros.'"
Alberto Feijóo Benito, who did not win the award, is very fond of music - Metallica, Iron Maiden and AC/DC -, reading - he is starting out in García Márquez with Chronicle of a Death Foretold -, walking in the mountains and looking for mushrooms - "this year is not for mushrooms" - and Atleti. If we add to the above that he attends classes to play the clarinet, we already have his leisure time more or less covered.
-What will it depend on whether you vote for one party or another on 29-N?
-I will vote for whoever I see can improve the economy, security, emergency management and solve problems like Ceuta.
-What is your position regarding immigration?
-I think it should be controlled, logically.
-What did you think of the Puerta del Sol camping trip?
-When I saw who the spokespersons for the Tenants' Union were, who came from wealthy families... How are people from rich families with property going to improve the situation? They didn't give me confidence.
-How would you solve the housing problem?
-Whoever governs should allocate an amount to build social housing and help new owners and tenants.
After our meeting, the train crash occurs in Urda. We called him to see if the accident has affected his vote. "A tremendous tragedy and one that is very sad. That a means of transportation that we have been accustomed to using for years and that this happens twice and so often... That 10 months have passed. Regrettable. And the decision to resign that Óscar Puente has made, we do not know if due to pressure from his party, due to popular pressure or both, was the most correct one," he says before pointing out that he is still considering his vote.
That Alberto is called Núñez Feijóo is not because a common ancestor has inherited the name but rather by chance. Mari Carmen, his mother, was thinking of naming him Mario Alberto because she was in love with the soccer player Mario Alberto Kempes, then a Valencia player. One day she heard him speak on television and it went away. The thing stayed with Alberto.
We go to the mother to compose the family tree. Núñez Feijóo's grandfather, he explains, was the oldest of 11 or 12 siblings - he does not know the number for sure - of which four were women. Remember Aurora, Marina, Paco, Antonio and his father-in-law - our protagonist's grandfather -, Marcial. They were born in the Orense parish of Luíntra, he says.
Núñez Feijóo has always said that his grandfather Manuel was a baker and that he grew up in the village of Os Peares with his grandmother Eladia, who was widowed relatively young - some chronicles say that she was 47 years old, others that she was 52 - and with eight children. Grandfather Manuel Feijóo Iglesias, explains Maricarmen, a rather corpulent man, died after falling from the balcony from which he was watching a kite show during Carnival.
Another of the Feijóo Iglesias sisters, Marina, emigrated to Argentina where she died. Since he emigrated for economic reasons, if his descendants had requested nationality, he would not in any case be among those benefited by the law on grandchildren. Another of the brothers, Maricarmen illustrates to us, Antonio Feijóo Iglesias, went into exile to France after the Civil War for political reasons as he was a Republican, so his descendants, if they had requested nationality, would be included in the calls to vote on 29-N.
-And how did the Feijóo arrive in this town of Segovia?
-My father [Ángel, son of Marcial Feijóo] came in the 60s to work in the construction of the Guadarrama tunnel.
