Alberto Núñez Feijóo sees himself president of Spain... someday. The problem for him is that this day is not coming. Pedro Sánchez's capacity for resistance seems infinite, but his last move encourages him to persevere in criticism. He believes that Illa can win well, but that Sánchez can force him to make an agreement with the independentists.
What did you think of the letter and the subsequent ratification of the President of the Government?
An unprecedented frivolity in European politics. He deceives his party, he hides information from his Government and from you, from the media, that the majority thought that after these five days of resignation, he would make some decision. An international embarrassment. We were on all the covers. We have exported to Europe the judicial problems of the President of the Government and those around him.
I did believe him. Did you at no time believe that you were going to resign?
From the first moment, it seemed to me that it was not true. But it is true that last Sunday, seeing the newspapers, understanding that you are also very well informed and seeing that there was a basic consensus that something should be done, I had doubts. And when I see that he is going to see the King... Now, then he doesn't say anything to him and I realize that we have the most frivolous president of Spanish democracy.
At some point during those five days, did you feel closer to Moncloa?
No. I am very clear that the current Pedrismo does not have a project for Spain. Your goal is to resist. If he had resigned, he would have made another impact, as the Portuguese prime minister did, and would leave a certain aura of late coherence. But it is evident that he was going to appoint another person from the PSOE. And as long as the PSOE needs separatism, and this in turn needs Pedrismo, we are only going to reach the Government through elections, which is what I believe. It is the weakest government in democracy, which has lost the elections and depends on its partners, the separatists.
And the appeal that Pedro Sánchez made to political regeneration, don't you do some self-criticism and admit that sometimes you have gone too far in your criticism of the Government? Above all, by including the president's family and personal environment.
I submit to the comparison of my interventions with the adjectives that the President of the Government and his entire entourage have dedicated to me. I have been constantly insulted for two years. And I can assure you that he has power. Because never has a President of the Government used State institutions so much. From the 16 million that are spent on conducting surveys through Tezanos –president of the CIS–. It seems that the president believes that we Spaniards should all be Tezanos. I came to national politics back in May. The polls are beginning to see how the PP is taking off and starting in July, a campaign against me begins, with that "of incompetence or bad faith." Later, they invented the phachosphere. Now they are in the mud. It is a factory of disqualifications. They have slandered me in Congress, saying that I had given a subsidy to a company where my partner had a business relationship and it was proven false. Sánchez seemed like a hooligan instead of the president of the Government. But if we compare the two, I can assure you that during these years, from the point of view of disqualifications, I have acted more like president and he more like head of the opposition.
You are part of a party that ten years ago investigated the president's family environment from the Ministry of the Interior and said “Sánchez must be killed politically”, they turned to former commissioner Villarejo and Manos Limpas. I can't believe you agree with these practices.
First, I don't agree with that, and second, I have my doubts that it's true. Because if we believe everything that Villarejo has said, then we could believe one thing and its opposite. What's more, I have heard that Villarejo had a fairly cordial relationship with Sánchez's father-in-law. You really have to know what the truth is.
But you will not deny that there has been false information created by that plot, published in the press and then used by you in Congress. Don't you do any self-criticism of the Catalunya operation?
I do all the self-criticism that is necessary, and the best proof of this is that we won the elections in 2016 and then a motion of censure came and we went to the opposition. I believe that we have sufficiently paid for any type of inappropriate attitude that we have had. But I think what surrounds Villarejo is probably another hoax. It's in a summary. Let us clarify, make it concrete and accept the judicial truth as a political truth. But I reiterate again that Sánchez's hoaxes have been constant. His political career is founded on them. All the presidents of the government have had much more dignity. He has deceived his party, his ministers. He has used the head of state. He has deceived you. Listen, how can a man who deceives everyone all the time be president of the Government?
If you become president of the government, should your wife continue working in the job she currently has?
Of course. My wife is a better professional than me. What I do say is that she cannot work having contracts or intervening or recommending companies that are awarded public contracts. The laws say it. There is an administrative type, which is conflict of interest, which is in the law for senior officials, and there is a criminal type, which is influence peddling, which is in the code. Therefore, of course she must work. What she cannot do is interfere in public affairs, in hiring or in companies that have a relationship with the public sector.
That is not proven...
It is information that you publish. Or is it that what your colleagues publish is all biased? All the Spanish press that dares to comment on the commercial business activities of the wife of the President of the Government... is it biased journalism? When letters of recommendation signed by the wife of the President of the Government appear in public contracts, doesn't that require reflection? When it turns out that companies that have contracts with the public administration have sponsored a professorship for a person who does not have a university degree, doesn't that attract attention?
Does this seem more serious to you than the case of tax fraud involving the partner of the President of the Government of Madrid?
I appreciate you asking me this question. The President of the Government has asked me in Parliament to remove the president of the Community of Madrid. That's machismo, right? Has the person you mention made contracts with the Community of Madrid? No. And the president of the Community of Madrid, has she done anything suspicious? I no longer say something illegal, something suspicious, nothing. The president of the Community of Madrid has nothing to do with an issue of a person who is her current partner. Sánchez sees the speck in another's eye and does not see the beam in his own.
Let's talk about the elections in Catalonia. Do you think that the result is going to influence the future of the Spanish legislature?
Look, I think, with all due respect, Illa is here for whatever the president needs. And that is very bad for Catalonia. He says in the polls that Illa can get more votes. The problem is that he doesn't have a plan. Because Illa cannot be president if Mr. Sánchez does not authorize it. Therefore, he gives me the feeling that Catalonia is once again going to be relegated, without a plan, without a project, without talking about the problems of the Catalans again. The Catalan elections will be a wild card for Mr. Sánchez to continue resisting as President of the Government in the face of his parliamentary minority and his essential need for separatism.
Do you think Illa can be a subordinate option, even if she wins the elections, to allow an independence leader to be president?
Yes, yes I believe it. Illa has a good disposition, but she is not trustworthy. He is the political leader who has established the most pacts with the Catalan independence movement. If you take the number of municipalities and councils in Catalonia, the PSC has more agreements with the independence movement than the independence movement has with each other. Therefore, he asks for a constitutionalist vote to hand over power to separatism. This visionary fraud has gone badly for Sánchez and the procés has gone badly for the independentists.
For your goal of reaching Moncloa, who would you prefer to win next Sunday? Illa or Puigdemont?
That the PP of Catalonia was decisive in Catalan politics. That is my goal. Look, I'm going to a rally in Badalona. When you vote differently, the results are different and can be better. Badalona is proof that there can be a Catalonia different from the one there is.
You have admitted that the PP has maintained indirect contacts with Puigdemont. I understand that he is not going to explain it to us now, much less during the electoral campaign, but when the Amnesty law is approved and he comes to Catalonia, would you maintain contact with him?
My first speech in Congress was the inauguration speech. I was four seats away from the absolute majority to be president. The fundamental reason is because I did not want to deceive Catalonia again nor did I want to deepen or resurrect a process that is negative. I did not accept the proposal they sent me from Junts to approve the Amnesty law, which the PSOE did approve. I didn't fool anyone. The amnesty is illegal and I did not want to be president of the government in exchange for a measure that, knowingly, I know is illegal. Sánchez has always used Catalonia to cement his presidency of the Government. Without Catalonia, he would simply be a deputy of the parliamentary group. And what was decisive for him to be president today were the 19 seats of the PSC and the 6 of the PP of Catalonia.
He hasn't answered me, would he meet with Puigdemont?
Let's see, has Puigdemont committed sedition, has he committed rebellion or has he committed nothing? I want Puigdemont to submit to the law and as former president of the Generalitat he is the first Catalan who has to comply with the law. Puigdemont has to reconcile himself with the law. And after this, anything is possible. Of course, talk and converse. But if one is not reconciled with the law and believes himself superior to the rest of his citizens, you will understand that this does not allow me to maintain a reflection or an approach.
But on the other hand, would you accept without problems the support of Junts in a motion of censure?
Junts has been used to make Mr. Sánchez president of the Government and believes that in the right measure, Sánchez's support will correspond to them to hold the presidency. That is a question between Junts and the PSOE. I have not deceived Junts and I am convinced that the PSOE has, but we will see that, as you say, after the elections.
And what does the PP hope to achieve in these elections?
We hope that the autonomist vote and the constitutionalist vote will be concentrated, because when we add the vote we multiply the seats. And all those who believe that the process has been a terrible deal for Catalonia and a social fracture, I ask you to trust in constitutionalism. We have a plan for Catalonia and it is to talk about things again. Why has Catalonia lost economic leadership in our country? Why is crime increasing, recidivism increasing, and illegal occupation of homes increasing? Why do taxes rise and at the same time the debt and deficit increase? Why do they spend more money on embassies than on desalination plants? Why can't Catalonia return to that coexistence it always had? The future of Catalonia cannot be made with the same people who managed the past. Sánchez has one project: to stay in power, and Puigdemont has another, that the process continues and we all ask for forgiveness. Catalonia cannot be subjected to that cage of the process or Sanchismo. It has to open the doors of the cage, which politically want to bridle it and open a new stage.
And then come the Europeans…
We all vote in the European elections. In Galicia the Galicians voted and the PSOE has remained the last political force. In Euskadi, the big news is that a party heir to a terrorist group has been whitewashed by the Government and could govern at any moment. The Europeans are going to be a good thermometer on the current political situation.
And what is your feeling? Do you think that Pedro Sánchez could finish the legislature under these conditions that you assume?
Sánchez has always done what interested him and he will continue to do so. If he has votes in Congress, he will still be there. In July it will be a year since the elections, and he has done nothing. He has not even presented the budgets. I'm not saying that he approves of them, but he has the obligation to present them. We have spent the first quarter of the legislature with a bill that was not even a bill debated in the Cortes, but was a bill, the amnesty.
Do you think some budgets can be approved before the end of the legislature?
This is a Government kidnapped by the electoral results and we have not had accounts in the current year, 2024, and nobody knows if Spain is going to provide a budget in 2025, because it does not depend on Sánchez, it depends on Puigdemont, and secondly , from ERC. At this moment what would be appropriate would be to vote again. Until then, Spain has no plan, no government and the president has lost his dignity. It is the worst time of all these 45 years that we have lived in democracy. Time of frivolity, falsehood, appearance, resistance. Sánchez's mandate is sterile and will be that way for as long as it lasts.
Are you satisfied with your relationship with Vox in the different autonomous governments that cohabit?
I think that my colleagues, regional presidents, are taking their electoral program seriously. There are no breaches in the PP program. Income tax and inheritance tax have been lowered. They have approved the budgets and have provided stability.
But they have made controversial decisions, such as the concord law that has been criticized by the UN for considering that fundamental human rights are violated...
The first thing we have to know exactly is whether this is a UN report in the strict sense. I have read in some media that this is not the voice of the UN in the strict sense. It would be surprising if another hoax slipped our way. What I can assure you is that we are very clear about historical memory in the PP. We believe that Francoism has been a dictatorship and that ETA has been a terrorist group. The Government does not have the autonomy to say this about ETA.
