The main problem with the departure of the president of Galicia, Alfonso Rueda, who is just now serving one hundred days at the head of the Galician Government after Feijóo's departure for Madrid, is his low knowledge. However, this summer it has been joined by another, the forest fires that have devoured 50,000 hectares where the mountain is much more than a landscape, it is a way of life. Hence the indignation with which citizens have welcomed a visit by the new president in the areas affected by the fires.
Born in 1968, seven years after his predecessor, Rueda's white hair, for which Feijóo once claimed part of the responsibility, gives the false impression of being older. But his image is more folksy, because he doesn't have what Loyola de Palacio once said about “Alberto, you do it well, but you're a bit cool”. Nor does he have the aura of a great manager that Feijóo was already built at Insalud and Correos. He is a city council secretary involved in politics from New Generations, with the experience of 13 years as number two of the Xunta.
And from there comes the main criticism that is made of it, the lack of innovation and its own discourse on what to do with Galicia.
Actually, the last one to have it, with its light and dark sides and the manna from European funds as instruments, was Fraga Iribarne. His successors, the socialist Touriño and the nationalist Quintana, moved between the promises of a transformative change and the continuity that disappointed so much. For Feijóo, the fundamental thing was to balance the accounts and, as happened after a long wait, to go to Madrid.
With the same government as Feijóo, with only one incorporation to supply himself, and without the team of advisers to the previous president who were the real advisers and are in Madrid, Rueda is committed to giving his Cabinet more scope. But, with few exceptions, his ministers lack political weight. This situation and the overwhelming but risky bet on a general secretary, Paula Prado, with a sharp fang but who can give notable moments of media glory, constitute a priori the open flanks of Rueda.
His great asset, as always, lies in the opposition, which has not grown with Feijóo's departure. He maintains, yes, the nationalist Ana Pontón as the first alternative leader to the popular in five years, with her commitment to gaining space, while the PSdeG yearns for a comeback for the PSOE in Spain.
Rueda's problem is in the mountains, because, although it is a very difficult year due to the heat, approaching 50,000 hectares burned at this point in the year is a lot, albeit in the context of a very bad year in Spain. Since the dawn of time, when there were characters from the right who blamed the nationalists for the fires, they have been highly politicized in Galicia. In 2005, Fraga continued to rage against the socialist councilor who, at the end of the 1980s, went to the Mediterranean on vacation with Galicia on fire. Feijóo used the tremendous fires of 2006 to wear down PSOE and BNG. And the left tried it in 2017.
In the PPdeG they glimpsed with some apprehension the transition from Feijóo to Rueda. In the opposition they did not see much of a problem, with all the political and media resources in favor of the popular ones. He got the opposition right. But the test will come with the municipal ones.
