Alfonso Rueda was chosen last by the PP to defend the great legacy of Manuel Fraga. The party founder created a robust political apparatus in his home country of Galicia that has so far been able to bring together the vast majority of right-wing and center-right voters. The Galician PP has ruled the Xunta for 36 of the 42 years of autonomy. Faced with the turbulent but failed succession under Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who had to compete with other rivals and spent four years in opposition to forge his first candidacy, Rueda took the lead from one day to the next.
He is married and has two daughters. He has been associated with the PP since his youth and owes his commitment to politics to his father. José Antonio Rueda Redondo was vice president of the Provincial Council of Pontevedra when Mariano Rajoy presided, not for the Popular Alliance, but for the Galician Coalition, a Galician center formation. At this time the Galician right was fragmented and this coalition ended in a fracture. However, the former Prime Minister maintains a close relationship with the son of his number two in the 80s and was significantly involved in his election campaign.
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By setting up chairs at the rallies, Rueda became president of New Generations in Pontevedra. After studying law at the University of Santiago, working as a banker and passing the exam, he worked as a local official in several city councils and then as city secretary, currently in special services and with a position in the city council of Marín (Pontevedra). ). He became Feijóo's right-hand man in 2006, but before that he was director of Fraga's local government between 2000 and 2005. He led the criticized campaign that elevated his mentor to Xunta president for the first time in 2009.
When asked if he could imagine that he would eventually become Feijóo's successor, Rueda always tells the same anecdote. In 2009, shortly after the fall of the left-wing coalition that had ruled Galicia for less than four years, he was already asked in an interview for his opinion on the “increasing rumors” that the elected president would immediately go to Madrid. This rumor about Feijóo's political ambitions remained alive until March 2, 2022, when he announced his resignation following the overthrow of Pablo Casado. During these 13 years he flirted with the idea of taking the plunge on Génova Street and then sleeping in La Moncloa, the current national president of the PP made not a single attempt to arrange his succession. Due to his outstanding leadership qualities, no other politician in the party was able to make a name for himself.
Rueda's knowledge of the workings of the government gave him points to suddenly obtain the Feijóo Scepter. He wasn't the only one who wanted it: Diego Calvo, provincial president of the PP in A Coruña, called for primaries, but in the end a fight was avoided and he was appointed vice-president of Xunta. The new leader of the Popular Party, who had just landed in the Spanish capital, didn't like the noise.
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Rueda only had two years to establish himself as a leader and candidate. Although he had spent 15 years alongside Feijóo as party general secretary and Xunta vice president, he inherited his positions without much popular knowledge. Almost overnight he moved from the shadows into the spotlight. And although he governed with a large absolute majority and no internal counterweight, he decided to bring forward the regional elections by five months and further shorten the limited time he had to falsify his election poster. The chosen date, in the middle of the debate on the amnesty law, was very sensitive for a Feijóo who needed victories after the trauma of the 23rd.
His work at the head of the Xunta was characterized by continuity both in the composition of the government and in Feijóo's politics, which he combined with a large public exhibition to make himself known. In addition, since the months before the elections, it has approved numerous public aids, including the payment of carers for people in need of care, sports equipment for children and devices for receiving DVB-T.
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