Driven by the wind in favor of all the polls and supported by the territorial barons and the leadership of his party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo chose Galicia to kick off the new political course. It is not only that with the election of a beautiful Galician place the leader of the PP has wanted to continue with what has already become a tradition for the popular, it is that it is in that autonomous community, a popular fiefdom in which he ruled for 13 years, always with an absolute majority, where you seem most comfortable. More, of course, than in Madrid, where the political, economic and media powers of the centralist right try to set the pace and where the policy applied by the regional president, Isabel Diaz Ayusocollides on numerous occasions with the strategy of moderation and outstretched hand that Feijóo proclaims.
Combining that temperance with a tough opposition to the Government is precisely the main challenge that the leader of the PP has ahead of him in a year, the last of the legislature, marked by the electoral calls, the first in May, with the municipal and regional electionsand the second at the end of 2023, with the general elections. These are appointments at the polls in which the two main parties first play their territorial power and then the Government of Spain. It should also be remembered that these electoral duels are going to take place in a gloomy economic and energy context, which will require the application of drastic restrictive measures that will directly affect the well-being of citizens.
A difficult scenario to manage Pedro Sanchez to whom, as head of the Executive, the voters will logically attribute responsibility for everything that goes wrong, but which will not be easy for the leader of the opposition to manage either. In a time of tribulation like the one that is coming, Feijóo could spoil the advantage that all the polls give him if he fails to correctly interpret the wishes of the voters or if the need to weaken Vox pushes him to hyperbole or blockade. PP supporters may detest Sánchez, but surely many of them are not averse to pacts and would like them to be applied policies that temper the crisis and that are made in common agreement.
In the act of Galicia, Feijóo has extended his hand to Sánchez and has challenged him to a “serene and calm” debate on the situation of Spain in the Senate, the chamber in which he has a seat of regional representation. It depends on the President of the Government that this takes place, but it would be good if it were. Not so that the citizens attend an irritating exchange of disqualifications again, but to see what are the points in common that they have, that there will be some because Sánchez’s energy restriction measures are similar to those of the European conservative governments, and to pave the way for long-awaited state pacts. The perverse game of blaming each other for dissent benefits no one. The Government is obliged to open up to negotiating with the PP, but Feijóo runs the risk that his offer of an outstretched hand will be reduced to mere rhetoric if he maintains his refusal to agree to any proposal that comes from the Executive. Only the conclusion of agreements – the renewal of the CGPJ and the energy measures are the most urgent – will confirm his proclaimed centrist and moderate disposition.