On Thursday afternoon, after the constitution of the Cortes, Genoa was bustling with activity. At the PP headquarters, Alberto Núñez Feijóo analyzed the setback that morning in the vote at the congress table, which the left won with its cabinet and some members of the popular leadership. “They knew things hadn’t gone well. “Feijóo was very surprised by Vox’s reaction to not voting Cuca Gamarra for the presidency of Congress,” says a leader familiar with the analysis carried out, stressing that no self-criticism emerged from this internal conclave. The leader of the PP has explained to some related parties that until the voting started he was unaware that Vox would not vote for Gamarra. “It was an unpleasant surprise, it probably wasn’t calculated well that Vox wouldn’t back us, and it undermined our chances of an inauguration,” analyzes a popular regional president. In politics you sometimes win and sometimes you lose. And Feijóo begins the investiture game with a first defeat.
The vote revealed the loneliness of the PP leader left after falling out with the far right on the sparse company of a UPN MP and another member of the Gamarra-backing Canary Islands Coalition. 139 votes in total, a far cry from the 176 of the absolute majority and the 172 it added including Vox. Despite this, in Genoa it was decided to continue with the plan as if nothing had happened. The image of the PP leader’s parliamentary isolation burst the bubble that he might achieve an investiture, but Feijóo has fled forward at least long enough for the king to decide on the assignment, ignoring the internal voices that are beginning to to question his strategy.
Since the bitter victory on July 23, nothing seems to be running smoothly at the People’s Headquarters. The fiasco at the congressional table would not be so significant were it not for rekindling the spirit of the Conservative party, which is still trying to digest the poll results. Thursday’s vote served as a “reality check,” some popular politicians say, because it made it clear that what matters is not winning the election, as the PP leadership defends, but that in a parliamentary system it is all about arithmetic arrive orders Her status as the list with the most votes to gain the Presidency of the Lower House was useless to the PP, as on the other side a wall of 178 votes (two more than the absolute majority) was erected to elect the socialist Francina Armengol . The striking thing about what happened on Thursday is that it was the PP itself that burst that balloon.
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Feijóo decided not to give Vox any of the four board positions sought by the PP. And with that, he broke the bloc with the far right and his chances of inauguration were mortally compromised. Why did you make this decision?
Nobody fully understands it in PP. The leader’s direct team explains that they primarily thought of the battle around the table in isolation. And when it was revealed that there were no options for the Congressional presidency, there was no point in giving Vox a seat on the table, even though it could have been a gesture of loyalty to a party with which it shares a common party four governments. autonomous. “The biggest booty was the presidency of Congress. If you can’t get it, it was about getting four or three spots on the table. And the story that we are identical to Vox was at stake. If we had voted together, we would have had no argument that other parties would support us in an investiture,” they argue around Feijóo. The problem is that breaking the right distance will affect his chances of getting the king’s commission to request an investiture because it reduces his support. “Feijóo wasn’t on that stage because he thought Vox’s support wasn’t in jeopardy. The strategy is up to him. He’s not in favor of placing orders with Vox. He is constantly aware of this problem,” analyzes a leader close to the leader.
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Feijóo has also explained to some barons that he left Vox out of the equation because he wanted to try to get the PNV to support his nominee for the Congress presidency. For this, he had to leave the extreme right out of the table as the Basque party is incompatible with Vox. That piece didn’t pan out either, however, as the PNV voted for socialist Francina Armengol, while peneuvist sources insist “there is nothing new” about her slamming the door on the PP to negotiate an investiture.
The Barons assume Feijóo also weighed the political dispute with Vox ahead of the new cycle. “What happened proves two things,” says an autonomous PP president. “The first is that Vox’s voice is cut off as much as possible. You can no longer give resources to the Constitutional Court because it has fewer than 50 MPs and they will not be on the table. Secondly, Feijóo assumed that he would go to the opposition or to elections. In any case, you must distance yourself from Vox.
The PP is now waiting for Felipe VI, who will have to decide whether to entrust the investiture to Pedro Sánchez or Feijóo. Everything depends on whether the leader of the PSOE, in the context of his meeting with the king, can bring in the 178 endorsements he received for the presidency of the congress. If not, the PP believes that Felipe VI. should commission Feijóo. The king “knows that Sánchez lost the elections,” Deputy Secretary Javier Maroto said on Friday, even sounding like pressure on the monarch.
If Felipe VI. decides that Sánchez is the candidate, Feijóo will have no more problems. But if he confides in him, the internal debate about whether or not to go to a failed investiture will reignite in the PP. “The table’s precedent makes his options much more difficult, but Feijóo has the right to stage his election victory in an investiture,” says a veteran summarizing the majority opinion in the PP. However, a current is spreading in the party that believes that another parliamentary defeat must be avoided. On the leader’s direct team, they open the door to backing down if Sánchez turns out to have the support of Junts for his inauguration. Feijóo will weigh his steps carefully.
The PP leader’s mistake in the first game of the Investiture has sparked internal uproar. Management has canceled the opportunity to hold a congress to bolster Feijóo’s leadership, while in the Territories the focus is on his team, which he must transform in the coming weeks. You will be prompted to make changes. In principle, the noise will no longer reach. “There’s always a tidal wave in the big parties, but nobody will question Feijóo, he’s only been around for a year and a half and has won a few generals,” says one of the most important regional presidents. Faced with his first defeat, the Galician politician continues without looking back.
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