Valladolid (EFE) to be a pioneer” after the regional and municipal elections on May 28: “the polls say that if we want to be an alternative to the Sánchez government we have to govern together.”
“I think (Alberto Núñez) Feijóo is not all-powerful, those who rule are the voters and in the end the PP and the PSOE are going to hit the wall of reality,” he argued in an interview with Agencia EFE about the possibility of that the popular national leadership limit the post-electoral pacts with Vox after 28M.
“If you look at the polls, not even the most optimistic of the PP-affiliated media give Mr. Feijóo an absolute majority: are you going to agree with the PNV and with the Catalan separatists? Are you going to agree with the PSOE? Or is he going to agree with Vox, which is what his social base is demanding? That is what the PP has to decide”, he has argued about the relationship he expects after the elections and its effects on the coalition in Castilla y León.
QUESTION.- After almost a year in government with the PP in Castilla y León, did you think it was going to be better or worse than it is?
ANSWER.- The reality is that I always thought that cohabitation was going to be difficult, at times it has been, but we are having a good understanding and we are acting responsibly and with a high vision to offer the best government to this region.
Q.- Can you imagine Feijóo setting you as an example, as Abascal did last week with Mañueco?
A.- I’m not very optimistic with that expectation…he has had an opportunity to do it and he really hasn’t done it. Nor am I very aware of what Mr. Feijóo says.
These words of Abascal honor him, it is an act of enormous generosity to set Mañueco as an example, and an act of justice, because despite the media climate that exists against this regional government, the president is firm in his commitment to the pact of coalition and I think it will undoubtedly be an example for all of Spain after May 28”.
Q.- And do those words to Mañueco benefit or harm him?
A.- In the long run they will undoubtedly benefit, I don’t know if in the short term, due to the electoral strategy of the PP, but the truth is that there is no sensible person in Spain who does not think that the solution to replace the Sánchez government is a coalition between the PP and Vox. The polls say that if we want to replace the Sánchez government and provide an alternative, we have to govern together. Manueco is undoubtedly going to be a pioneer.
Advocacy in the coalition
Q.- The differences between the PP and Vox at the national level, do they stress the pact in Castilla y León?
A.- The most important thing, and I think it is something that we are doing quite well, is assuming from the beginning that we have different priorities and political objectives and focusing on what unites us. As long as we accept the difference and we know that everyone can carry out an electoral campaign where they focus on their main concerns, there will be no problem. The problem is when one party tries to crush the other in the coalition, we are giving ourselves space.
Q.- How do you think Feijóo receives those compliments from Vox towards Manueco?
A.- I think that if Feijóo thinks of the best for his party, he should receive them well, because they are valuing a regional leader of the PP.
Q.- And Ayuso’s break with Vox?
R.- It is very advantageous to break with another party in the last plenary session of the legislature, it is a toast to the sun because it does not imply anything… it is going to elections and saying that it is breaking is as much as saying nothing.
It is clear that the electoral strategy of the PP is to capture more socialist votes, they have turned to a center left to try to capture that vote and as long as they are honest with the voters, that strategy is perfectly legitimate.
Q.- Can you imagine Feijóo preventing coalition governments between the PP and Vox in other CCAAs?
R.- I think that Feijóo is not all-powerful… those who rule are the voters and in the end the PP and the PSOE are going to hit the wall of reality. We are giving an answer to the Spanish in a multitude of matters that no one else is giving. Here everyone is proclaiming themselves president ahead of time… but sovereignty resides in all Spaniards, who are called to the polls.
Q.- What does the PP of Mañueco have that the PP of Feijóo does not have?
A.- The PP is a party with a thousand faces, even the Madrid PP has several PPs, Almeida’s has one style and Ayuso’s has another. Here the PP is doing well because it is having the capacity to get along with a party like Vox, which is what the right-wing social base was demanding. The PP-CyL is doing something better than the national PP.
Q.- Who is in command of Vox in the coalition? Abascal or you?
R.- Vox works in a unitary way unlike others and I am really satisfied to have the best possible relationship with Mr. Abascal, it is unbeatable, and there is reciprocal trust. So far it is working very well with the first regional government and with the leadership of the party.
It was important that Abascal speak on this issue, after such forceful statements by Ayuso and other national leaders of the PP. It is evident that the relationship between the PP and Vox in Castilla y León has an impact at the national level. It was important that Santiago fix the position.
interference
Q.- Manueco asked just the day before that there be no interference in the coalition.
R.- We had interference here during the negotiations when Mr. Pablo Casado said that he was not going to agree with populists, xenophobes and a series of thick descriptions that I do not share, or when Donald Tusk and other officials of the European PP wanted to veto this coalition. It is really the PP that seems to be uncomfortable in some aspects at a European and national level with this relationship.
At the national level there is no other way out… if one looks at the polls, not even the most optimistic media related to the PP give an absolute majority to Mr. Feijóo. Is he going to agree with the PNV and with the Catalan separatists? Is he going to agree with the PSOE? Or is he going to agree with Vox, which is what his social base is demanding? That is what the PP has to decide.
Q.- Do you perceive pressure from the national PP on Manueco to bring forward elections again?
R.- I think you are not under pressure, at least I do not perceive it. He has a situation of certain independence and is free to manage the coalition, I think that is why we are having such a good relationship.
Q.- Are they going to exhaust the legislature?
R.- That is my wish. As a procedural lawyer that I was until recently, I have the duty to handle all possible scenarios and it escapes no one that one of them could be an electoral advance, but I really trust and I want us to finish the legislature.
electoral advance
Q.- Are you afraid of finding out about the electoral advance by a tweet on May 29?
A.- Obviously I contemplate this scenario like many others, but I really do not see it as probable. The PP of Castilla y León acts responsibly, I trust that what the president says is true, that he intends to exhaust the legislature and trusts in the results of this government. I know it’s a possibility? Of course, but I trust that it will go well.
Q.- And do you see Abascal’s vice-president face?
A.- What Mr. Abascal has is the face of a president, he has a very clear natural leadership, every time he gives a rally or a public act he fills it up, he has the affection of the people, the result of many years of courage and consistency, and an international leadership without any doubt (Italy, Hungary, Poland, Sweden). He is a potential prime minister, without a doubt.
Q.- But there is a European isolation towards the extreme right.
A.- As a premise, all this from the extreme right, I understand that it is a qualifier that the press uses to place us geographically to the right of the PP, but I do not accept it as good.
I don’t see isolation, what I see is a disconnection between the Brussels elites who want to maintain a status quo and then the reality of Europeans who are giving more and more confidence to parties of the alternative right, conservatives or whatever you want to call them . Sooner or later a party like Vox will be able to form a government leading it in Spain.EFE