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If Pedro Sánchez has made ductility and changes of opinion a hallmark of his political identity, Alberto Núñez Feijóo's ups and downs are also beginning to be clamorous. In the case of the PP leader, they are especially frequent when he addresses the Catalan conflict, in such a way that he has sown confusion even among his own people. Which is the real Feijóo? The one that speaks of “Catalan nationality” or of seeking “a fit” for the “territorial problem” or the one that proposes the illegalization of parties that defend secession? Who should we believe? To the Feijóo who considered the pardons a “humiliation” to the State or the one who now contemplates them for the sake of “reconciliation”?
Feijóo sometimes makes clearly contradictory statements and, when they are not incompatible statements in substance, they are incompatible in tone and intention. One day he sends a conciliatory message to the independence movement and the next he harshly disqualifies it. Another example: just as one day he admits that he would maintain the dialogue table between the central and Catalan governments if he came to Moncloa, another rejects it outright. The inconsistencies have increased after the general elections, when Feijóo attempted to investiture him, ultimately failed, and opened talks with all groups except Bildu. Thus, on August 23, Esteban González Pons, one of his trusted men, commented on Junts: “It is a parliamentary group that, like ERC, beyond the actions that four people, five, ten, carried out , represents a party whose tradition and legality is not in doubt.” And before Sánchez's investiture, when there was still some loophole that Junts did not support the socialist, Feijóo admitted indirect contacts with Puigdemont's party, of whom he said: "In the contacts, not personal or direct, but indirect, not He has lied to us. That is a value. I do not agree at all with his approach, but that does not mean that there can be respect from the discrepancy.”
Before, Feijóo had always practiced a certain ambiguity. For example, when Pablo Casado joined the demonstration in Plaza Colón against pardons almost three years ago, with Vox and Ciudadanos, the Galician president avoided attending, although he followed the party's slogan of presenting initiatives in the parliament of his community in against the measure of grace. That call in Colón was very defining of the two sensitivities of the PP regarding the Catalan conflict. The party continues to debate between those who maintain that it is only possible to stand up to the independence movement, that lukewarm positions - as they consider the one maintained by Mariano Rajoy and Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría - contribute to the growth of Vox, and those who consider themselves moderates, who suspect that only with The support of the peripheral nationalists will be able to return to power and they are convinced that a centrist turn will allow them to fish in socialist fishing grounds. Neither Feijóo, nor the Andalusian Juanma Moreno, nor the president of Castilla-La Mancha, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, went to Colón. Instead, Isabel Díaz Ayuso attended, who signed up first, even before Casado, in addition to the Basque Carlos Iturgaiz and the president of the Catalan PP, Alejandro Fernández.
Now, in the middle of the Galician campaign, Feijóo assumes that there could be pardons if some conditions were met. The conditions are somewhat tricky because the leader of the PP is referring to Puigdemont submitting to trial and renouncing the illegal referendum and the unilateral route to be pardoned. In fact, Oriol Junqueras already expressed himself in that sense before the pardon was applied to him and that does not mean that the PP relaxed its criticism of him. Given the inconsistency of the changes in position, many have speculated with the fear of Puigdemont's threat to reveal what was said in Junts' contacts with the PP to achieve Feijóo's investiture. It is the “controlled blast theory” for which there is no evidence. On the other hand, there are precedents for plot twists, as we have explained. Hence another reason can be pointed out for what happened, and it has to do with the scenario that arose in Plaza Colón.
Since he became president of the PP, Feijóo balances between the two souls of the party. An internal tension that already marked Rajoy's succession. The toughest sector of Casado, with the support of María Dolores de Cospedal, triumphed against Sáenz de Santamaría. Later Feijóo became president with the decisive impulse of Díaz Ayuso, despite his different styles. The Galician began his career with misgivings about Vox's pacts, but ended up succumbing to them for the sake of his barons and hoarding regional and local power. Together with González Pons, Feijóo believes that the PP needs to strengthen itself in the Basque Country and Catalonia to have options to govern. In Euskadi, the party leadership has replaced Carlos Iturgaiz, closely linked to the harsh era of ETA terrorism. But the matter is still pending in Catalonia. Feijóo would like to unseat Alejandro Fernández, but he presents a Numantine resistance and Génova does not have a powerful alternative candidate. Feijóo would like a profile like that of his friend Josep Piqué for Catalonia, but he can't find it.
Meanwhile, the leader of the PP continues to be conditioned by the sector supported by Ayuso. Some days the pragmatic side appears that defends pacts with the PNV and Junts as the only way to reach Moncloa, while on others the strategy of the radicals prevails, especially when the temptation to wear down the Government with the scarecrow of amnesty arises. riding from one electoral call to another. Only if he manages to reinforce his leadership will he be able to print a more autonomous strategy. Hence, the Galician elections have become a flying goal of utmost importance. If the PP loses the Xunta, Feijóo will hardly be able to undertake changes in Catalonia, for example. Let's not say go further. As in the myth of Janus, the leader of the PP has two faces, one that looks to the past and the other to the future, without yet being able to decide which one he wants to give the lead voice to.
