Feijóo closes his pacts with Vox without clarifying his relationship with the ultras

The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo (left), during the meeting held with the president of Vox, Santiago Abascal, within his conversations with political leaders to seek support for the investiture, this Tuesday in Congress.ZIPI ARAGON (EFE)

This week, two uncomfortable photographs have reminded the PP that Vox, despite its attempts to hide it, has established itself as its preferred partner. The first image occurred in Congress, this Tuesday, in the meeting that Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Santiago Abascal held for the Vox leader to confirm to the PP leader the decisive support of the 33 far-right deputies for his investiture. That snapshot, in which Feijóo appeared at times with a circumspect gesture, took a year and a half to produce. Despite the fact that the two parties already share five regional governments and agreements in 140 town councils, the Galician politician had until now made himself elusive with that of the extreme right. The second image is that of the investiture of the president of Murcia, Fernando López Miras, this Thursday, which has moved forward almost four months after the elections, only when he agreed to include the ultras in his Government, despite having refused all this time . Feijóo left the chair empty at the investiture of his Murcian baron, to whom he sent his number two, Cuca Gamarra. But the portrait was already done.

The fate of the PP leader, as the photographs that haunt him demonstrate, is linked to the extreme right. In the immediate future, because the support of the 33 Vox deputies has been essential for the King to entrust him with the investiture. And in the background, because all the territorial power of the PP now rests on Abascal’s party, which has managed to prevail in the negotiations and has forced up to five autonomous coalition governments: those of the Valencian Community, Castilla y León, Extremadura, Aragón and the last, Murcia. “Feijóo takes it badly because he can’t stand them, although he respects Abascal,” they say in the party about the popular leader.

Whether due to his personal itching or electoral interest, or a mixture of both circumstances, the Galician politician maintains as a strategy to pretend that he does not have a strategic alliance with Vox. This week, Abascal left the meeting in Congress celebrating “the new stage of understanding between the PP and Vox”, while the PP leader made an effort not to grant him any special status. “With Vox there are and will be discrepancies. We are different parties. It is natural, democratic and it is obvious that being different parties we can agree on the diagnosis and treatment of important problems, ”Feijóo recounted in the press room, although he put Vox in the bag of “constitutionalist” parties.

The PP has made a great effort to get the votes of Vox for the investiture of Feijóo, a task that the party attributes to the discreet effort of the vice-secretary Miguel Tellado. Without the support of the ultras, Feijóo would not be able to defend even a worthy defeat in the investiture. But even if he needs them, the PP leader seems determined not to clarify his relationship with those of Abascal, who act as a toxic agent so that the PP can get other support. The other actors, however, realize this play of shadows. The president of the PNV, Andoni Ortuzar, reminded Feijóo that Vox is his “elephant in the room” and the reason why the Basque party has categorically rejected agreeing on his investiture.

Reality is stubborn and the PP calls on Feijóo to clarify the relationship and strategy with the extreme right. The barons asked him to do it, to whom he left freedom in the negotiations of the territorial pacts, which resulted in chaos. Some agreements were signed at full speed ―like the one in the Valencian Community― while others have arrived after a tortuous path of failed resistance, like the one in Murcia. And some leaders ask him for it, such as the deputy Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, who in a forum in El Mundo has made his “bipolar relationship” with Vox ugly: “A few days we exalted him as a preferred partner of the Government; Others of us join in the demonization of him. A gift for Sánchez. Nothing strengthens Frankenstein (in reference to the coalition Executive) more than the doubts of the PP about an ally that is now inevitable”, writes the parliamentarian.

Not alone. Many in the PP recognize that it is urgent to define a strategy because the absence of a clear plan has cost Feijóo dearly in the elections. In Genoa they admit that the disorder in the territorial pacts was a mistake, because “the party’s position on some issues was not understood”, and the majority opinion in the popular ranks is that Vox prevented the resounding victory they needed to govern. “Feijóo let the barons do it because he always wanted to be treated that way when he was president, but coherence failed. Sánchez sacrificed his family to stay in power and with Feijóo it has happened the other way around: he gave flight to his family and that killed him ”, analyzes a leader of the first command ring throughout that stage. “The problem was that we could not eat everything we expected from the PSOE due to the rejection that Vox gave. The Vox electoral poster where you could see how the feminist and LGTBI flags were going in the trash… was key. Many right-wing parents with homosexual children did not vote for the PP because they were afraid of it, ”he recounts, summarizing a generalized analysis in the party.

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The barons also believe that a coordinated strategy is needed. “Feijóo is very respectful of us. So much so that there are people who criticize him because everyone does what they want. But an effort would have to be made to coordinate. Rajoy was respectful of the barons, but he strengthened coordination ”, reflects a regional president of the PP who shares a Cabinet with Vox. “He has not told us anything about what to do with Vox. And we need a strategy, although in each territory it will have to be different. The debate will open when the government is defined. This president believes that it will take time for the PP to find the key. “There are three parts in the Vox electorate: one is formed by the votes cast from the PP; another, that of former abstentionists and Franco supporters; and the third is that of niches: that of farmers and ranchers, that of men angry with women or that of the self-employed. “This cannot be resolved in two afternoons.”

At the moment, Feijóo is not making any moves, also conditioned by his investiture at the end of the month, in which he needs Vox. The leader of the PP is not up for risky moves either because he has been suffering from internal noise due to some of his latest decisions, such as meeting with Junts, who has ended up having an abortion. His collaborators are committed to continuing to navigate indefinition. “The relationship with Vox is asymmetrical: we agree on many points and disagree on others. The PP has more in common with Vox than with Sumar, but once the PSOE isolates you, you are left with a possible partner. The one who has forced us to agree with the extreme right is the PSOE,” they argue in the leader’s direct team.

Some leaders hope that Feijóo will take advantage of the speech as a candidate for the presidency to mark clear distances with Vox and begin to define a new strategy. It won’t be easy for him, because in the photograph of that investiture he will also be portrayed alongside the ultras.

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