"Luckily we didn't sign the agreement to renew the Judiciary." It is the phrase that on Friday ran through the seven floors of the PP headquarters on Génova Street.
If anyone still had any doubts about whether it was a success or not having broken off the negotiations, on Friday he was convinced that it was the only thing Feijóo could do once Sánchez ratified him, by phone, that he was going to reduce the penalties for the crime of sedition.
As they already warned in the popular leadership when the dialogue was suspended, "our voters would not have understood it."
Now, the reform initiative has been corroborated, which, on paper, could lead to the disappearance of the crime of sedition and a substantial reduction in the accusations for which justice has persecuted and persecutes the actors of the procés, including those who feared that the PSOE and the Government pushed the PP to the extreme of the right, they admit that Feijóo could not do otherwise. The president of the PP risked a campaign of criticism for doing what he considers to be the best for Spain.
In the Popular Party they read what happened as a sum and it goes on: first it was the pardons and now the suppression of the crime of sedition. They are sure that voters will not forgive Sánchez.
In this context, Feijóo is now willing to fight for the center space that the popular are convinced that Pedro Sánchez has abandoned for giving in to what they consider an independence blackmail.
"We are in a position to be the only force that can appeal to the moderate center," say PP sources, who stress that no one can say that "not agreeing with Sánchez" is the sign that the popular have abandoned moderation. On the contrary, it is the PSOE who has heeled.
The popular ones know that there is a lot of time left for the general elections and, although the municipal and regional elections are close and will be important for the final result, they also consider that "the elections have not been won in the last fifteen days". In the end, the vote responds to an analysis of what has been done over time, and that is why they defend that the so-called Feijóo effect is alive and now, with the controversy over sedition, it will be much better understood what the PP raises.
Feijóo is not concerned that a specific survey indicates that the PSOE is closing the gap with the PP. His data underscores that, at this time, the sum of the votes that the PSOE and United We Can obtain, that is, the two parties that make up the Government, cannot overcome what other polls give the PP.
In addition, they underline, according to these data, not only do they have one out of every two votes from the political center, but between six and eight percent of the voters who leave the PSOE go to the PP.
It is that fringe of Spaniards who are in the political center and vote or have voted for the PSOE, whom Núñéz Feijóo wants to attract, and the abolition of sedition is an opportunity for the PP strategists.
The popular do not doubt that the pact with ERC can give Sánchez votes in Catalonia, but not in other places in Spain. It is something that the PP has already detected in the last electoral appointments.
They talk about Galicia, where Feijóo achieved his fourth absolute majority, but also about the elections in Madrid in July 2021; Castilla y León, where despite having needed Vox, the PP surpassed the PSOE, which did not happen in the previous elections; or this year in the Andalusians, where the PSOE has been harvesting setback after setback.
