Feijóo hides his economic project in the lists for the 23J elections

The PP made public on Wednesday the lists for the July 23 elections. The expectation about Feijóo’s number two on the Madrid ballot was very high. Historically, the party has sent a clear message with the ‘ticket’ that accompanies its candidate for Prime Minister: from Rodrigo Rato with José María Aznar and the first Mariano Rajoy, to Manuel Pizarro or Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría later.

Names of great weight within the PP. Political assets of the first order called to direct the economic policy (or politics, in general) of the Government. After the fiascos of Pablo Casado (Adolfo Suárez Illana, first, and a decaffeinated Ana Pastor, later), in the party they trusted that their new boss, who came from the “Highlands” as he himself defines them to save them from the catastrophe, will recover the path that has given so many electoral successes to the right.

But Feijóo has broken the schemes with the election of Marta Rivera de la Cruz, former Minister of Culture of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, outside the PP militancy, former leader of Ciudadanos and very critical for many years of the party that now gives her shelter to return to Congress.

No signs about his economic minister

In the PP they defend that Feijóo’s intention was to “show his support for the world of culture” with Rivera de la Cruz and his spokesman and deputy secretary of the branch, Borja Sémper, in the three. In the same list for Madrid, in addition to his closest collaborators, the PP leader has integrated the ‘number two’ of Sémper in Genoa and writer Jaime de los Santos, as well as the also writer and former Citizen Aurora Nacarino .

The same day that they released their complete lists, Feijóo was interviewed by Federico Jiménez Losantos, who asked him about his economic team. A week before, he did the same on Onda Cero with Carlos Alsina. Both asked him about the person chosen to pilot a key matter in the coming years and of which the PP has always made a flag. And both were met with a evasion in response.

Feijóo told Alsina that he would give her the name “after the elections.” Losantos, who did not cross-examine the leader of the PP, gave him to understand that he has already chosen the person, and that it will be “very solid” and “unquestionable from a technical and international point of view.” And he slipped a name: Pablo Vázquez, the person in charge of refloating the founding of the party, Reformismo21.

But Vázquez is in 13th place on the PP lists for Madrid. And, despite having held relevant positions in Spain (from Ineco to Renfe or consultancies such as McKinsey), he has not held any relevant position beyond the borders, much less in Brussels, where Spain gambles tens of billions in European funds. in the next years.

And the rest of the names? The person who theoretically directs the economic policy of the PP is Juan Bravo, who will be number one for Seville. Bravo was the economic adviser to Juan Manuel Moreno in his first term in Andalusia, and his profile fits in a future Cabinet, but perhaps more at the head of the Treasury.

In Bravo’s team there are some former advisers with little or no presence on the 23J lists. This is the case of Miguel Corgos (who was part of the Feijóo governments), but who will not attend Congress; Paloma Martín (former Minister of the Environment, Housing and Agriculture that Ayuso has sent to the Senate to the chagrin of some, who see her prepared for greater challenges) or the former Minister of Economy of Murcia, Luis Alberto Marín and of the Balearic Islands, José Vicente Marí Bosó, and who head their respective ballots. The group is completed by Javier Thibault, one of the main collaborators of Fátima Báñez in the Ministry of Labor during the Rajoy governments, and who does not aspire to be a deputy either.

An opaque foundation and external reporting

But those names do not contrast with the international profile that, Feijóo said, his economic manager will have. Neither is the vice president and minister of Economy, Business and Innovation that the leader of the PP has stolen from his successor in the Xunta. Francisco Conde, who will head the list for Lugo, is pointed out as one of Feijóo’s main assets in the economic field, but with special incidence in the industrial field.

And up to here within the lists of the PP. In Genoa they detract from the absence of a clear name that personalizes Feijóo’s economic policy. The sources consulted point out that the party leader has important assets outside of the candidacies, and even of the organic structure of the party.

“These lists are to win the elections,” they point out from the national headquarters on Calle de Génova in Madrid. Thus, the signing of Marta Rivera de la Cruz would have the objective of attracting what remains of the Ciudadanos vote, whose leadership has decided not to stand in the July 23 elections.

“Feijóo has not wanted to identify his referent, he has not wanted to show it,” say the same sources. “He will say it later,” they point out. Maybe it’s next Monday. The PP candidate stars in an informative event, the New Economy Forum, sponsored by Asisa and Solaria. A perfect frame for the ad. Or not, because Feijóo said on Onda Cero that he would solve the mystery after the elections.

From the team of the PP candidate, they also defend that there does not have to be a powerful economic name, as Rato was or Calviño is. “There is a choral team in economic matters,” they point out from Genoa.

But the PP habitually wields reports and papers that do not come out of the offices at number 13 Calle Génova, but from the building opposite, where the Reformismo21 foundation has been temporarily located. Or ‘think tanks’ related to employers, such as the IEE. Or Fedea, led by the president of Caixabank.

Pablo Vázquez and his team occupy the mezzanine of number 15 in Genoa, just above one of Santander’s private banking offices. In recent months, only one semi-public act of the foundation has been held, focused on environmental policy and with a leading role of the former minister of the branch and today vice president of the bank with which they share an office, Isabel Tocino.

And who works for Reformismo21? It’s a mystery. Genoa sometimes reports a name that Feijóo incorporates into a team outside the PP organization, which joins the advisory council that he announced in March 2022 and of which there is no documentary trace.

With the foundation they would be collaborating, always according to the PP, the former Minister of Labor Fátima Báñez, today leader of the CEOE; the former leader of Ciudadanos Luis Garicano, a recently announced signing but who continues to work in the US; or the one who was fleeting Minister of Economy Román Escolano. The latter has a bit more international background since he was vice president of the European Investment Bank, but he is not part of the lists. He currently works at Cunef, a private university of the large banking employers’ association (ABA).

Feijóo thus plays with the times and looks for the ideal moment to announce his economic reference, while attacking the current first vice president, Nadia Calviño. The PP has renounced, for the moment, an economic debate with the excuse that Calviño is not on the PSOE lists, despite the fact that Luis de Guindos did not on the PP lists either in 2011 or 2016. Or, perhaps, since neither will he now the one chosen by the leader of the right.

And that the PP has chosen from the beginning the economy as one of its main battering rams against the Government. Twisting the data, sometimes lying, or saying, at the same time, that the war in Ukraine affects and not the rise in prices, for example. Or perhaps precisely for this reason: the absence of a reference means that no one has to take charge in the first person when Feijóo says, for example, that the Spanish economy is “stalled” despite growing, or attacking employment policy, when the Social Security affiliation data is close to 21 million people making contributions. A historical landmark.

Feijóo insists on the mantra of the spendthrift government that worked so many times in the past for his party, and for himself. He points to the increase in debt (which, however, has not stopped falling with respect to GDP since 2020) or to a supposed runaway public spending that is not a problem for the European Commission. The Government of PSOE and Unidas Podemos has presented to Brussels a project that increases spending, and has received the go-ahead. Even Europe would admit a few tenth more. But the leader of the PP prepares the ground for a future budget cut for 2024 that some party leaders place at around 20,000 million euros.