Feijóo stops triumphalism in the PP and demands tension until the polls to avoid depending on Vox

“Change is getting closer, but it is not done... and we cannot think that everything will fall like forbidden fruit.” With the general elections increasingly present, although they still do not have a date, in the Popular Party the memories of 2023 are still very much alive. Alberto Núñez Feijóo wanted to start his intervention there at the start of the political year in Madrid. Even before confronting Pedro Sánchez, the popular leader has warned his people of the risk of becoming overconfident and has demanded an extra effort to maintain tension until the polls. Because the goal is no longer just to win. It is to do it with enough slack to evict Sánchez from La Moncloa “without the investiture pacts” once again frustrating his plans.

Feijóo thus wanted to ward off any temptation to triumphalism in a party that has been achieving good electoral results for several years. The president of the PP recalled that the popular people arrived at the last general elections convinced that change was within reach and ended up staying at the doors of La Moncloa. This time he has asked for “strength so that reason wins” and has warned that the advantage that the PP perceives today in the electoral scenario cannot become relaxation. The objective he has drawn is to win the municipal and regional elections and, above all, the general elections with a sufficient majority to govern alone and prevent Vox, increasingly stronger, from having the key to the Executive.

Once that warning was set inward, Feijóo directed his speech towards the President of the Government. The migratory crisis in Ceuta and, especially, Sánchez's decision not to travel to the autonomous city during his vacation have once again occupied the center of the popular offensive. In the PP there is a conviction that the absence of the socialist has generated a political cost and has affected public opinion.

Feijóo has also accused the Government of being “hostile towards the invaded and docile towards the invaders” and has denounced the abandonment of the Spanish borders. The Galician leader has called for a stronger immigration policy and has placed the protection of territorial integrity as an obligation of the State. "Spain does not have to ask for permission to control its borders, it is its obligation. Spain does not have to ask for permission or forgiveness to maintain its territorial integrity," he proclaimed before demanding the appearance of the director of the CNI at the Official Secrets Commission to find out what information the intelligence services handled before the massive entry into Ceuta.

The offensive against Sánchez has taken up even more space in the intervention of Isabel Díaz Ayuso. The Madrid president has dedicated almost half of her speech to confronting the head of the Executive, both about his management of the Ceuta crisis and about her vacation. An intensity that is also explained by the political moment that Ayuso herself is going through, whose shadows due to the controversial purchase of a luxury penthouse have not dissipated and will foreseeably continue to accompany her in the coming months, between the political battle in the Madrid Assembly and her journey in court, where several complaints have already accumulated.

Ayuso has tried to convert that wear and tear into ammunition against Sánchez. In one of the most striking passages of her speech, she assured that the president is “obsessed” with her and added: “If I were Begoña, I would be upset.” The Madrid president has thus sought to reverse the terms of the confrontation and present the criticism she receives as further proof of the alleged political persecution of La Moncloa. She has also baptized Sánchez as “the boss of La Mareta” and has predicted that he will end up in “some Bolivarian dictatorship” of the kind that, according to her, she likes.

But in that strategy he has incurred a contradiction that has left his speech exposed. While he accused the Government of having ignored Spain during the holidays, he has forgotten that his own Administration has required the help of the State to deal with the fires that have overwhelmed the response capacity of the Community of Madrid. The same central Administration that is usually accused of waging a political war against Madrid has assumed leadership of the emergency when its Executive has been overwhelmed.

Feijóo has completed his speech with another of the great opposition fronts of the PP. He has rejected the financing model proposed by the Government because he understands that it responds to the demands of the Catalan independence movement, which he has identified with “the Junqueras model”, and not to the needs of public services. Faced with this, it has vindicated the management of popular autonomous governments and has placed Madrid as one of the showcases of that alternative.

The underlying message, however, has been the one stated at the beginning, not to trust yourself. The PP faces the new course with the conviction that change is closer, but also with the need to convert that expectation into a majority that allows it to reach La Moncloa without repeating the outcome of the last general elections and without being at the mercy of Vox. Feijóo has called for tension until the polls. Ayuso, in his offensive against Sánchez, has revealed precisely the opposite risk.