The president of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and that of Vox, Santiago Abascal, held a meeting in the middle of last week to analyze the electoral results of the last general elections. According to Vox sources, in the “cordial” meeting the possible scenarios were studied after the election Sunday both leaders confirmed that the sum of their parties does not guarantee a right-wing government.

The same election night, in which Vox achieved three million votes —despite losing almost twenty seats—, both leaders had a telephone conversation. That contact was repeated several times throughout the past week until it materialized in the meeting that sources from the Popular Party also confirm, without going into more detail, appealing to the “discretion” with which to address these matters.

Sources from the far-right party explain that Santiago Abascal attended the meeting with the will “to be responsible”, despite the fact that Feijóo ignored him throughout the electoral campaign. Before the meeting took place, the ultra leader encouraged the PP president to seek votes “in the good PSOE” for his hypothetical investiture.

This meeting contrasts with the belligerent attitude that popular barons like Juanma Moreno are displaying these days against the extreme right. At the party’s national headquarters, they do not believe the latest statements by the president in which he assured that Vox gives the electorate more “scare” than parties like ERC or Bildu. “He is an accredited leader,” explain party sources, who is “insulting” his formation and his electorate.

It was also the leader of the Andalusian Popular Party who blamed Vox for the victory of the PSC in Catalonia in the last general elections. A barn of key votes for Pedro Sánchez to hold his own. The vice president of Political Action of VOX, Jorge Buxadé, has referred to the results obtained by his formation as “extraordinary”. Vox achieved 30,000 more votes than in the 2019 elections, keeping its two deputies.

Asked about the possibility that Catalan citizens forcefully supported the PSC against Vox’s speech about a possible return to the tensions of 2017, Buxadé has defended that the transfer of votes to the Socialists has its origin in ERC. “There has clearly been a process of demonizing Vox to which the media have contributed,” he argued at a press conference, dodging self-criticism.