The PP achieves 136 seats, far from an absolute majority even with Vox, and will ask the rest of the parties to abstain so that it can govern
The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóowon the elections this sundaybut with insufficient result to automatically become the next Prime Minister. The popular ones have jumped from 89 to 136 deputies, a figure that, added to the seats obtained by Vox (33), does not reach the 176 parliamentarians that the absolute majority marks. Feijóo, as he had already announced in the campaign on more than one occasion, believes that, being the candidate with the most votes (almost 300,000 more ballots), he has the right to try to form a government and will ask the PSOE and to the rest of the parties that abstain at his investiture. Pedro Sánchez has already said these weeks ago that he is not going to do it, because the Spanish system is parliamentary and not presidential: the majorities are formed in Congress
The Galician politician went out to give a brief speech on the balcony of Genoa and was interrupted with shouts of “Ayuso, Ayuso”
“I expressly ask the PSOE and the rest of the political forces to do not block the Government of Spain once again“, said the Galician politician on the balcony of Genoa after midnight. “It is up to me to try, we are the alternative option and that is what I will do,” he declared. The speech, which lasted just ten minutes, was initially interrupted by shouts of “Ayuso, Ayuso”. The president of the Community of Madrid appeared along with the rest of the PP leaders with a very serious face.
Feijóo himself had set the 150 seats as the border between good and bad results. In fact, he went so far as to say on Saturday, the 15th, to the journalists that I thought they could reach 168 deputies. That euphoria was lowered in the last days of the campaign. The doubts and nerves began this Sunday morning and in the afternoon several leaders consulted by this newspaper blamed the result on “happy expectations” and the “rain of polls in favor.” “Vox has not endured, [Pedro] Sánchez has managed to sell his victimhood…”, pointed out a regional president of the PP. In private, senior officials believe that there will be an electoral repetition before Christmas because the current president of the Government will not be able to form an alliance with the rest of the parliamentary arc.
“He has had 18 bad days and two good hours,” says a senior PP official from Aragon in reference to the face-to-face with Sánchez
In the PP none of the leaders consulted believed that Feijóo has in mind to explore a possible Government with the support of the PNV(5), Canary Islands Coalition (1) and Unión del Pueblo Navarro (1); that would imply convincing Vox (33) not to ask to enter the Government. “It is impossible, the Basques are not going to want to be making laws with the extreme right. We are going to the blockade,” said a senator.
Gold and pensions
Feijóo’s campaign went from more to less. “He has had 18 bad days and two good hours,” said a senior PP official from Aragon this Sunday morning. With the two hours he was referring to the good performance of the Galician politician in the face-to-face against Sánchez on Monday 10, as soon as the official race began. Feijóo got entangled in his clarifications about his friendship and trips with Marcial Dorado: He went so far as to say that in the years that they shared vacations (in 1995 and 1996 at least) he knew that he had been a “smuggler”, but he had not yet been accused of “drug trafficker” (something to which he was sentenced seven years later). Some leaders began to comment last Thursday that they did not understand Feijóo’s reaction to questions about Dorado, a matter that Yolanda Díaz (Sumar) has raised during the campaign.
This issue, together with his lies about pensions (he said several times that the PP had raised them “according to the CPI”) and his absence in the RTVE debate that he did not want to attend, are pointed out as the main errors of the conservative candidate, in addition to the aforementioned “blissful expectations”.