“We will continue to honour the municipal agreements with Vox.” This is how PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo has pledged that his party will continue to govern with the far right in dozens of municipal councils after Santiago Abascal's party broke the five autonomous coalition governments that both maintained under the excuse of reception of 347 minor migrants brought over from the Canary Islands.
The PP leader appeared before the media at the national headquarters to directly accuse Abascal of imposing a decision that was not wanted by the regional leaders. “One faction has managed to gain the upper hand over the rest of the party. Who and why this decision was made is a matter for Vox,” he said.
Feijóo has already considered writing off the coalition governments that, apart from Castilla y León, lasted barely a year. “We appreciate the services provided,” he says. But he has distinguished his party from Vox, which has suggested it is not abiding by the law. “The PP will always abide by the law, will assume responsibilities as a party of state and government, and will show solidarity with everything that happens anywhere in the country,” he said.
“They didn’t measure,” Feijóo said. “They braked too much and went off the rails,” he added. The PP leader has defended the regional governments’ decision to welcome 347 underage migrants transferred from the Canary Islands, a reason Vox gave to break the leadership. “The PP will always comply with the law, assume responsibilities as a state and government party, and be in solidarity with everything that happens anywhere in the country.”
The PP leader has expressed words of gratitude to his regional barons, who have seen their governments left in a minority almost overnight, without the mediation of their own internal crisis, but rather with elements that they consider exogenous. and poorly motivated. Feijóo has acknowledged that from now on they will have “a kind of extra difficulty” to govern. But he has described them as “responsible” and “brave”, he has called them “comrades, not employees” and he has compared them to the president of the government, Pedro Sánchez, who, he said, “we see him every day. give in” to your partners. “My colleagues have shown that there is another way to do politics.”
Feijóo has placed all the responsibility on Vox, and specifically on Santiago Abascal. “There are others who have changed,” he said. The leader of the PP regrets that the decision of the leader of the far-right has allowed Sánchez to leave the focus of the media. “He has managed to prevent his wife from sitting on a bench responding to a judge,” he said, as well as blocking “people who have been persecuted by the justice system from coming to Spain and, as a result of the functioning of the justice system and the independence of the Spanish justice system, can return to Spain thanks to a procedural ruling,” referring to the leader of ERC Marta Rovira. Another element that has remained hidden because of Abascal, according to Feijóo, is that “the Guardia Civil entered the provincial council of Badajoz to find out if his brother ever went there, if he had to work somewhere, which does not seem to be the case.”
Alvise and immigration as a problem
“Without a doubt, Mr. Abascal helped in one of Mr. Sánchez's worst moments,” he accused. Feijóo has revealed the real reasons that, according to him, led to the breakup of Vox. “The European partners have changed, their electoral concerns and we do not know if there is anything different,” he added, referring to the movements in the ultra parties after the June 9 elections and the rise of Alvise Pérez.
That same Friday, the CIS published a barometer that tells his party: the party is over. 2.7% vote estimateIn the same sociological study, immigration is seen as one of the most important problems experienced by citizens.
Feijóo, aware of these data, has pledged that the PP will maintain its “solidarity” despite the fact that “more avalanches of illegal immigrants are expected”, as he said at the press conference. “The PSOE is grateful to Vox”, he noted, because “thanks to its incomprehensible decision, the government can show that its lack of control over immigration policy is typical of the autonomous communities.” “It may seem that we are all equal, but that is not so”, he said.
The PP leader has stood up to those who accused him of taking in minors. “I will not accept that anyone says that my party is complicit in rape or machetes,” he said, despite the fact that he himself electorally stoked the alleged link between migrant children and insecurity.
Despite having jeopardized this “solidarity”, Feijóo has avoided answering the question of whether the PP will support the reform of the immigration law, with which the government aims to regulate a system of reception for minor migrants and which so far depends on the will of regional leaders, as was demonstrated last Wednesday.
The PP is also not responding to the request of the Canary Islands, of which it is a part, to accommodate thousands of other minors currently housed in public centres on the islands. The PP leadership claims that the figure given by the Canary Islands will be much higher in a few weeks, given the arrivals of boats expected in the coming weeks, which will make the problem much greater.