The president of the PP will take a step back. It is the time of Pedro Sánchez, they say in the PP, when they are asked, and now what?, after the definitive defeat of Alberto Núñez Feijóo in his intention to be invested as president of the Spanish Government. Sources consulted by the party consider that it is now necessary to leave the role and the initiative to the socialist candidate, so the King, on Tuesday, will appoint him, if he does.
But in the meantime, sources from the popular leadership understand that its president must prepare the party to oppose, now or when Sánchez is invested, if his negotiations are successful and ERC and Junts support him. There are those in the party who think that until the leader of the PSOE is invested, nothing should be taken for granted, and Feijóo should not oppose, because it amounts to ratifying ahead of time that Sánchez will have the support to be president And it is not safe, they allege, since the shadow of the repeat election still hangs over Spanish politics.
Others consider that Feijóo must already put on "opposition mode", even before there is an investiture, to get all the machinery ready for a legislature that they predict will be short. It is necessary to convey from the first moment to the citizens – they allege – the difference between a PP government and one of the PSOE, both in the way their respective leaders do politics, and in substance. A president "dedicated to paying for the support of pro-independence people", they say, or one whose main concern is "the problems of the Spanish", especially from an economic point of view: inflation, rising mortgage rates, taxes...
To tackle this new stage, the majority of popular leaders believe that it is necessary to make organic changes in the management, either by replacement or expansion. It is necessary to strengthen a management that has served for this first stage, but that now has to play with a different situation. When these changes are addressed, everyone looks to Cuca Gamarra. She is secretary general and spokesperson of the group in the Congress of Deputies. Feijóo decided after the election not to change the directions of the groups in both houses until he knew if he would be president or if he should be in opposition.
When he came to the presidency of the PP, in the spring of 2022, Feijóo decided that Gamarra, in addition to his number two in the party, was the highest authority in Congress, since he was not a deputy, although he found placement in the Senate, from where he interpellated once a month the president of the Spanish Government. In Congress, it was logical, they emphasize from the PP, that number two was also the spokeswoman, to give maximum authority to parliamentary interventions. But Feijóo is already in Congress and it may be convenient that the two positions held by Gamarra do not overlap.
In this opposition that will be prepared by Feijóo, the PP will focus on the next electoral calls: the Basque and Galician elections in the spring of next year, the European elections in June, and the Catalan elections, which will take place at the beginning of 2025, but which in party do not rule out that they are earlier.
All are important for the PP. The Galicians, because they will be the first since Feijóo left Galicia and it will be seen if Alfonso Rueda maintains the absolute majority obtained by his predecessor. In the Basque Country, the interest lies in whether the PNB retains the presidency and whether the PP can play a substantial role in making this happen. And in the European Parliament, revalidate the first position.
But the PP looks at Catalonia with great interest after the results in the municipal and general elections. They will try to improve their numbers by gathering votes among the moderates of Junts, who miss the Convergence and Union of other times, in the economic aspect; but also in terms of self-determination. "We will seek the vote of Junts, not only that of the PSC and Ciutadans", the popular people emphasize.
