The dismantling of the image of Alberto Núñez Feijóo as a weighted leader is going to be slow. Weeks after Moncloa, alerted by a gradual rise in the polls, decided that people had to be told who the leader of the PP really was, stripped of the layer of supposed moderate and left him naked, the latest CIS poll shows that You won’t be able to undress him that fast.
The Socialists have received a shot of energy, after the CIS – contrary to the rest of the published polls – placed them in first place again, after letting the PP occupy the podium before the summer. That situation has turned around. The PSOEwith 29.2%, is once again the leader against a PP that drops to 28.5%. Regarding July, the socialists gain one point and the popular ones lose one and a half. But the underlying problem, the one that has really launched the operation “on the offensive” against Feijóo, persists. The flight of votes from the PSOE to the PPthat exceeds half a million votes, barely moves. The arguments that the Government and the PSOE are offering to this portion of voters so that they are not dazzled by Feijóo are still insufficient.
And that this CIS was held between September 1 and 10, with this strategy at full capacity, as was clearly visualized in the face-to-face meeting that the President of the Government and the leader of the opposition held on the 6th in the Senate . The transfer has decreased, but little, after months without stopping growing. It is true that in July it was when it had the highest number of voters -8.3%, which is 560,000- and this month it has dropped to 7.6% -513,226-. But it is that he has gained weight very quickly since the Galician leader became president of the PP. His constant and agile growth was what before the summer set off the alarms in Moncloa and prompted the idea that it was necessary to “dismantle” Feijóo.
In June the flight to the PP was still below half a million -391,673 votes, 5.8%- but the following month it skyrocketed. Shortly after, Pedro Sánchez changed the leadership of the party, with the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, as the new deputy secretary general, and the Minister of Education, Pilar Alegría, for the first time as spokesperson, and began the choral campaign to convey to public opinion publicizes the “insolvency” of the leader of the popular ranks.
Alternative, month to month
Regardless of the fact that the PSOE thus pursues, with a greater combat position in the face of the regional and municipal elections of May 2023 and the general elections at the end of the year, waking up the organization and a good part of its electorate that has settled in abstention, the numbers are stubborn to show how the PP has become a credible alternative with the replacement of Pablo Casado by Feijóo.
With Casado, the escape of votes from the socialists to the popular ones was much more testimonial. In February, the definitive war broke out between the former leader of the PP and the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, which resulted in the defenestration of Casado and the landing of the Galician in national politics, officially materialized at the beginning of April. Considering January the last month of stability within the party, the CIS data reflects that they did not exceed 155,000 votes, 2.3%.
These figures have not stopped increasing since Feijóo settled in Genoa. In April he already rose to 4.4%, 297,131 votes; in May, 5.6%, 378,167; in June, 5.8%, 391,673, and in July the increase to 560,000. The figure has dropped slightly this month, 7.6%, 513,226 votes. Added to this rapid expansion of the transfer of voters to the PP is the consideration of the president of the PP as leader of the opposition. Two quarters of the Socialist electorate find it untrustworthy, another quarter not at all, but a further quarter – to be absolutely exact, 21.4% – quite trustworthy.
Related news
These data have a fairly symmetric reverse in the assessment that their own voters make of Pedro Sánchez. For half (47.7%) the Chief Executive transmits a lot of confidence but to 25.5% he instills little confidence.
Perhaps the October CIS poll will be more definitive to verify if the Feijóo effect has really been stopped, with the confirmation that the transfer of votes from the PSOE to the PP is decreasing. But also to find out if Vox, another of those affected by the change in leadership, continues to lose ground to the PP. In his case, the voters leave him in droves. According to the July CIS, 28.1%, which left a meager 60% of voters who remained faithful. This month the drama is somewhat less: only 17.4%.