One thing is theory and another is practice, and Alberto Núñez Feijóo is comfortable with the theory of politics based on moderation, institutionality, centrality, and political and institutional stability.
All of them expose them as their hallmarks but sometimes that strategy comes up against what some members of the PP do.
Away from the noise of Spanish politics since he began his tour of Latin America six days ago, the president of the popular group calls for politics based on agreements despite having broken off negotiations for the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary.
But he also points out as a fundamental principle of his way of doing politics, "respect for the adversary", discarding the "political lexicon full of high-sounding words". That has been the basis of all his public interventions on his Latin American tour.
But perhaps Feijóo was not aware of the controversy in Spain, unleashed after a few words from the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who accused Pedro Sánchez, his adversary, “of wanting to put the opposition in jail, like in Nicaragua.
Some words that the popular leader does not subscribe to, according to his management team, which maintains that Feijóo would never have said them, despite the tense relationship he maintains with the Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez after the breakdown of negotiations by the judiciary.
The truth is that the PSOE demands that Feijóo disavow the Madrid president that the president of the PP has no intention of doing.
Feijóo, according to PP sources, is convinced that the Socialists are exaggerating Ayuso's speech. These same sources maintain that what the PSOE intends is to point out the leader of the PP as "weak", compared to a Madrid president who rules the party.
But Feijóo is not scared by these PSOE approaches, because nothing will make him change his way of doing politics, which, as he stressed at the Chilean Development University, is based on moderation, institutional stability, centrality, and always away from of "the polarization and the trenches" that characterize populism, against which it warns.
It is true that Feijóo, when he made these calls for political and institutional stability against those who advocate radicalism, was talking about Chile. There he met with various opposition parties. In that country he only met with the president of the Senate, a socialist, but with no one from the government headed by Gabriel Boric, whom Feijóo would place in that populism that "only produces instability." As an example, the popular leader spoke of the Constitution prepared by the Chilean Government, which was rejected by more than 60% of the citizens.
But Feijóo is convinced that only moderation, centrality and stability can solve people's problems, which is what he claims to be in politics for.
And Ayuso, with his outbursts, is not going to divert him from his goal. Neither does Sanchez. Basically, whether Feijóo likes it or not, Ayuso also helps him get closer to a sector of the extreme right that may prefer the Madrid president's speech to Feijóo's moderation.
The PP is Ayuso, remember in the popular direction, but also Juanma Moreno, who triumphed in Andalusia with an image of moderation. For this reason, Feijóo, every time they talk to him about the barons, referring to the Madrid president, he also cites the Andalusian president.
In the Popular Party they attribute the statements made by the Madrid leader to her appointment with the polls in May. Juanma Moreno and Alfonso Fernández Mañueco are not examined, they already had their elections. Ayuso advanced his electoral call but in the spring he must once again submit to the verdict of the polls.
The good results of 2021 are at stake. He needs, at least, to repeat them in order, despite not having an absolute majority, to govern alone. Anything short of that will be a failure.
