When he became president of the PP, in 2022, Alberto Núñez Feijóo wanted to solemnize a change in the recent political culture of his party, announcing that "politics for adults" was returning. And even more: that he would not be a "twitter" leader. Four and a half years later, everything has changed so much that that commitment has been left behind, buried in the newspaper archive like so many other resolutions that came face to face with reality. The popular ones have been metamorphosing their strategy in step with the political demands of the moment, and in parallel with the growing inflammation of their electorate.
But the 29-N general election campaign has changed frequency after the tragic accident in Urda (Toledo), which took the lives of 69 people last Wednesday. Now it is time, even out of respect for these victims and their families, and, in general, for high-speed users, to talk about management. And that "Spain works again." This is what the Popular Party thinks, which wants to take advantage of the fact that the political moment has aligned with its intentions to enhance the managerial profile of Feijóo, who presided over the Xunta de Galicia for 13 years, more than initially planned.
The PP believes that from now until November 29 the public conversation will revolve around the strengths of its candidate. "The campaign of gestures, pranks, jokes and dances has blown up, and management is back in the news. The focus is now on what he knows how to do. The country is not here for dances or to talk about how much sex the President of the Government has," they explain in Genoa. "And the video joking with the Renfe will haunt Óscar Puente forever," they say.
After the shock of the Urda accident, which the PP felt firsthand due to the death of the former popular minister Fátima Báñez, the Génova leadership decided that the electoral campaign had to revolve even more around making public services work. That is why Feijóo is going to use a "Government-in-waiting scenario": serious, austere and very focused on restoring citizens' confidence in the railway system.
This is how his team explains it: "Rigor. Experience. Management. He is not a person who is going to come to the Government with the L for practices attached to his back. He arrives with experience from the wait; we are ready to govern and undo all this chaos."
On Friday, Feijóo already started this strategy. In his meeting with a team of experts in the railway sector, he appeared with a large gray panel behind him that had a black crepe superimposed along with three words: "Management. Rigor. Experience." The consultant and political communication analyst Javier Sánchez González analyzed in his networks: "The scenography of the Shadow Government, the layout at the work table (war room format) and the sober tones of the PP's staging are not a coincidence. They seek to project order and institutional seriousness." It is, in his opinion, "an aesthetic millimetrically designed to activate contrast." "Without flags or rallies, the clinical message seeks to reach directly the moderate and undecided voter who rejects verbal confrontation and demands order and professional solvency," he noted.
In the engine room of Genoa they do not hide that Feijóo "is better off" talking about "fixing things" and managing budgets than the candidate humanization strategies with which the pre-campaign had begun. "It is the Feijóo moment and we think that now people long for what we represent," they reiterate. "We return to politics for adults," they concede.
It is, to a certain extent, a return to 2022, but without forgetting that in 2026 voters are much angrier and much more likely to vote from the gut than based on the usefulness of the ballot. In fact, Vox does not stop rising in the polls, and the end-of-cycle speech benefits it. This is what a Feijóo collaborator recognizes: "Yes, there will also be a vote to settle accounts, and people vote with a lot of anger against Sánchez."
So? The PP will not abandon the steely and clashing side with the PSOE in any case. In fact, Feijóo already blames the Government directly for the deaths in Urda: "At least 69 people have died because it did not renew an obsolete security system."
But that hardness will be combined with a greater commitment to putting emphasis on what is clear and sound. In Genoa they assure that the transfer of votes from the PSOE to the PP is increasing, and that in just one month that figure has gone from 5.5% to 8%. Feijóo wants to sow that spigot with his idea-force that "Spain works again."
