The European People's Party (EPP) is no longer what it was after the defeat of the conservatives in Germany and France, to which must be added the motion of censure that liquidated the Rajoy government four years ago.
However, it is still the largest parliamentary group in the European Parliament and its ranks include the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen; the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola and the President of the Council, Charles Michel.
Before them, the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, premiered yesterday in Rotterdam, where the EPP celebrates its congress, with a harsh speech against the Government of Pedro Sánchez, whom he reproached for its "internal division" and its "external weakness", amen of developing “wrong economic policies”.
Feijóo presented the PP, and himself, as an alternative to Sánchez and as a guarantee of orthodox European politics.
In his speech he launched three messages. The first, stability, because "the PP symbolizes the stability of constitutional Spain that the current government is not capable of guaranteeing." Secondly, a message of hope, because the PP "represents the hope of all Spaniards who do not want a country without direction." And finally, he was convinced that the PP will recover the Government of Spain in the future.
Feijóo launched criticism perhaps as harsh as that made by his predecessor, Pablo Casado, when he traveled to Europe but putting it in the mouth of others or making it clear that it is not about harming Spain, but about criticizing his Government, which, he stressed, are different things.
From the first day of the congress, Núñez Feijóo has revealed the concern that he detects among the European popular leaders about what he considers "a dangerous drift" of the Sánchez government.
And yesterday, before them, he reiterated the many questions that the European leaders have asked him about the situation in Spain and in the central Executive, and about matters that concern them, both in the social, economic, institutional and territorial spheres.
Feijóo claimed to understand "his misgivings about the opacity and low execution of European funds", his "uneasiness about the internal division and external weakness" of the Government of Pedro Sánchez, at the same time that he assured that he shared "his uneasiness about the position of part of the Spanish Executive towards NATO and the consequent mistrust of international partners”. He also referred to the "surprise at the high level of indebtedness in Spain, his concern about the skyrocketing inflation, and the urgency to learn about reforms such as pensions."
However, and despite this situation, he asked the members of the EPP to grant Spain "the trust it deserves, because it is much higher than that which the Spanish Government deserves".
Feijóo presented the PP as a guarantee that all those problems that concern them can be resolved. "The PP is not a eurosceptic opposition, nor will it have part of a government that doubts Spain's permanence in NATO," he guaranteed. The popular leader recalled that his party "is the one that introduced the euro in Spain," he stressed, and is the one that "guarantees compliance with the rules of the euro," he said, referring to the need to reduce the debt and the deficit, which was welcomed with applause by the rest of the European leaders.
Núñez Feijóo presented a PP comparable to the rest of the European center-right parties: “We have ideas, not dogmas; we want to unite, not disunite; we understand politics as a permanent exercise of responsibility and not of frivolity, and we are a party with open doors, without exclusions, where all those who have said enough is included”.
That is, stressed the president of the PP, what makes the PP strong: "We are strong because we have collected the tiredness of the Spain of moderation."
