Laura Zornoza
Brussels (EFE) that their formation in Spain must find the points of union on which both forces can cooperate.
Question: After these regional and municipal elections, in many cities and regions the PP will need pacts with Vox to be able to govern. Until not so long ago, this cooperation was a red line. What is your position on coalitions with Vox?
Answer: We have elections in a few weeks and each party will need to run its own campaign. It is what Alberto Núñez Feijóo is going to do. He is not going to campaign thinking about the result or what he will or will not have to do the day after the elections.
He will have to do it based on the principles of the PP and offering an alternative to Sánchez that is functional, viable and sustainable. He will do that, and then it will depend on the Spanish. Everyone will be judged by what they say, how and when they say it. Although Sánchez will bring up the Vox issue and try to open the culture war, I think the Spanish are smarter than that and are not going to buy it. They will choose the right program, policies and leader.
Q: Even with each party running its own campaign, it is undeniable that it will overlap with the decision-making on pacts at the regional level. Could this influence how Feijóo campaigns for him or the decision of some voters?
A: You cannot underestimate the voters. It is important that Feijóo directs his own campaign, honestly, to articulate the policies that he wants, and that is what he will do regardless of what Sánchez does. We are confident in what people will choose.
Q: But cooperation with Vox is no longer a hypothetical question.
A: Everyone is going to be tried and in the face of the elections the parties at the local level are going to have to make decisions. They will be judged on those decisions and why they have been made.
Q: The president of the EPP, Manfred Weber, has questioned whether the government is prepared to assume the presidency given Podemos’ position on supporting Kiev.
A: I think that when Feijóo wins, Brussels will welcome him with open arms as a moderate, serious leader who knows where he wants to take his country. The manual for the center-right in Europe is set. The first thing that will have to be done is to be fiscally responsible and he knows that. The second thing is that Feijóo has already positioned himself as a moderate, a liberal. The fact that Ciudadanos is not going to run in the elections clearly indicates that the center trusts Feijóo.
The third is that Feijóo has made the orientation of his future government very clear: pro-European, pro-NATO, pro-rule of law and pro-Ukraine, while it is not so clear for the current president. I think Europe is ready to receive Feijóo.
Q: To return your answer, is Feijóo prepared for Europe? He would have an immense task in assuming a presidency begun, with the priorities of the previous Government and with contacts that have not been had until now.
A: It is ready. He has had to take on a party that did not have the best experience with its previous leader and, in just one year, unite it and lead it to an electoral victory. Now things are going to move very quickly, but the PP is not new to Europe. They will have to act fast to meet their responsibilities, but they can.
Q: Is the grand European coalition dead? Does the PPE prefer to explore other alternatives?
A: We are in a situation, in Europe and many of its member countries, in which the center left has been hijacked by the extreme left. This is not good for our democracy or for the center left, because it is not a path that can lead to constructive policies or to what we have in common, and that is what the grand coalition is about. Both center-right and center-left are responsible for how they manage their wingers and will be judged on how they do so and whether they are able to build bridges. When we look to our right, we see certain political actors that we can’t even talk to. Our red lines are Europe, NATO, the rule of law and Ukraine. With Law and Justice (the ruling party in Poland), for example, it is impossible.
Q. And with Vox? They certainly do not have a pro-European position.
A. This is problematic. But with a serious political party, which is how we should treat Vox, if they are serious about us talking, we have to find the issues that we can talk about. We must keep communication open and communicate constructively, and this is what we are committed to doing. I have already said it, everyone will be judged and this is not an aphorism. It will happen to the center right and the center left, and I hope that the center left realizes, with his experience in Spain, where the limits are.