“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 have no date, memories of 2023 remain very alive in the Partido Popular. Alberto Núñez Feijóo wanted to start his speech at the beginning of the political season in Madrid from there. Even before confronting Pedro Sánchez, the popular leader warned his followers of the risk of becoming complacent and called for an extra effort to maintain tension until the polls. Because the goal is no longer just to win. It is to do so with enough margin to evict Sánchez from La Moncloa “without the investiture pacts” frustrating his plans again.
Feijóo wanted to ward off any temptation of triumphalism in a party that has been chaining good electoral results for several years. The president of the PP recalled that the popular party arrived at the last general elections convinced that change was within reach and ended up falling short of La Moncloa. This time he asked for “strength so that reason wins” and warned that the advantage the PP perceives today in the electoral scenario cannot turn into relaxation. The goal he outlined 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 strong, from holding the key to the Executive.
Once that warning was set internally, Feijóo directed his speech towards the president of the Government. The migration crisis in Ceuta and, especially, Sánchez’s decision not to travel to the autonomous city during his vacation have again taken center stage in the popular offensive. In the PP there is a conviction that the socialist’s absence has generated a political cost and has resonated with public opinion.
Feijóo also accused the Government of being “hostile to the invaded and docile with the invaders” and denounced the abandonment of the Spanish borders. The Galician leader called for a firmer migration policy and placed the protection of territorial integrity as a State obligation. “Spain does not have to ask permission to control its borders, it is its obligation. Spain does not have to ask permission or forgiveness to maintain its territorial integrity,” he proclaimed before demanding the appearance of the CNI director before the Official Secrets Commission to learn what information the intelligence services had before the massive entry into Ceuta.
The offensive against Sánchez took up even more space in Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s speech. The Madrid president dedicated almost half of her speech to confronting the head of the Executive, both for his handling of the Ceuta crisis and for his vacation. An intensity that is also explained by the political moment Ayuso herself is going through, whose shadows from the controversial purchase of a luxury penthouse have not dissipated and will likely continue to accompany her over the coming months, between the political battle in the Madrid Assembly and her legal proceedings, where several complaints have already accumulated.
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Ayuso has tried to turn that wear into ammunition against Sánchez. In one of the most striking passages of her speech, she said the president is “obsessed” with her and added: “If I were Begoña, I would be suspicious.” The Madrid president thus sought to invert the terms of the confrontation and present the criticisms she receives as further proof of the alleged political persecution from La Moncloa. She also nicknamed Sánchez “the cheek of La Mareta” and predicted he would end up in “some Bolivarian dictatorship” of the kind, according to her, he likes.
But in that strategy, she fell into a contradiction that left her speech exposed. While accusing the Government of neglecting Spain during the holidays, she forgot that her own Administration has requested the State’s help to deal with the fires that have overwhelmed the Community of Madrid’s response capacity. The same central Administration she usually accuses of waging a political war against Madrid has taken charge of the emergency when her Government was overwhelmed.
Feijóo completed his speech with another major opposition front of the PP. He rejected the financing model proposed by the Government for understanding that it responds to the demands of Catalan independence, which he identified with “the Junqueras model,” and not to the needs of public services. Against this, he claimed the management of the popular autonomous governments and positioned Madrid as one of the showcases of that alternative.
The underlying message, however, was the one he placed at the beginning: do not become complacent. The PP faces the new season with the conviction that change is closer, but also with the need to turn 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 her offensive against Sánchez, has shown precisely the opposite risk.
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