“We have tripled the number of mayors.” This is how the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, boasted this Monday of his pacts with the extreme right to monopolize territorial power after the municipal and regional elections last May. An increase in municipal power that Feijóo owes to a large extent to Vox, although the PP candidate has tried to reduce the influence of the extreme right and has lied about the number of large cities that they owe to those of Santiago Abascal.
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Feijóo has assured in an informative act this Monday morning that the PP governs in “four or five town halls throughout Spain” thanks to Vox. A false fact: the PP will govern 23 large cities (more than 50,000 people) in coalition or thanks to the support of Vox. And in 17 of them, the PSOE was the force with the most votes in the 28M elections.
Thanks to these PP agreements with Vox, those of Feijóo have managed to dye the map of municipal power that emerged from the polls blue. The PP stays thanks to the pacts with the extreme right with important places such as Valladolid, Elche, Gijón, Toledo, Burgos or Alcalá de Henares. But there is more.
Despite the evidence, since the polls deny this option, Feijóo has once again promised that he will govern “alone”. “Citizens are fed up with factions, who try to confront and polarize all the time,” he stated, after a campaign by municipal and regional governments focused on “repealing sanchismo”, in the presence of EH Bildu and slogans such as “socialism or Spain”.
“Another policy is possible”, he pointed out, “The trenches are no longer useful”, he added. “The PP has left the block policy and we are going to build bridges”, he concluded.
“After 28M I have considered the change started,” he said. “This weekend, the PP has significantly increased municipal power. We tripled the number of mayors: from 156 large cities [más de 50.000 habitantes], there will be a PP mayor in 83; and in four more, we integrated the Government”. The right-wing leader has indicated that his party will lead four out of 10 municipalities.
However, Feijóo has outlined a completely divergent discourse with this reality. At the event, held at the Hotel Ritz under the patronage of Asisa and Solaria, the PP leader boasted of having prevented “the independentistas” from governing (referring to ERC and Juntos in Barcelona or EH Bildu in Vitoria) while the PSOE has agreed with the “sovereignty” of the BNG in Galicia.
Feijóo has especially boasted of the vote in favor of Jaume Collboni in Barcelona, who has left Xavier Trias without the Mayor’s Office despite winning the elections. “What is the best way to recover centrality and break the block policy?” He said. “We have followed it everywhere, also in Barcelona and Vitoria”, he added, to point out that both have been decisions where “the sense of State has prevailed, without asking for anything in return”.
“We prevent the independence movement from governing Barcelona,” he pointed out, to criticize: “The PSOE has allowed a sovereignist candidate to govern Santiago de Compostela.” Feijóo has regretted that the Socialists have agreed with the BNG in almost all the large Galician cities, but has ignored that his party has divided up the city of Ourense and the provincial council with the party of Gonzalo Pérez Jacome, despite the recordings that indicate to possible cases of corruption.
The PP leader has even fantasized about the possibility of the PSOE unseating Pedro Sánchez for a “grand coalition” that facilitates his investiture: “If the PSOE changes its general secretary, it would be possible; With this Secretary General, with his acts and biography, it is not possible ”.
Unspecified promises and secrecy about its economic plan
Feijóo has been faithful to his style at the event organized by the New Economy Forum. Despite the name of the event, the PP leader has hidden his economic plan if he governs. By not revealing, he has not even revealed who will take responsibility for keeping the accounts in case of arriving at the Palacio de la Moncloa.
In fact, Feijóo has boasted of his obscurantism. “I’d be happy to say it, but I can’t.” “I won’t say it, but there is,” he has insisted in reference to his possible Economy Minister.
Feijóo has even pointed out that “the economic team of the PP has always been better than that of the PSOE.” “And it will be again,” he concluded. Just these days, Rodrigo Rato is on a tour to present his memories after going to jail.
The leader of the PP has regretted that it is said that European funds are “in danger” if he governs, when the reality is that the Commission itself has warned that tweaking the laws that have been agreed with Brussels could put that income at risk.
Immediately, Feijóo has argued that Spain has “one of the governments with the least transparency in funds.” Something that, he says, has been assured by “the European commissioners”, “the Community” Government. A statement that does not correspond to reality. It was a delegation of parliamentarians who said: “We have found that much of the data is available but it is difficult for the population and journalists to find it.”
Feijóo has not revealed his government plan very specifically if he reaches Moncloa either. He has very succinctly stated 10 points to launch in the first 100 days. And without contributing anything new.
Feijóo has proposed “reducing the Government”; “review public accounts”; an undefined “income tax reduction”; “recover the crimes of sedition and increase the penalties for corruption”; make a “new Organic Law of the Judiciary” to guarantee the independence” of judges and prosecutors; ”fight for equality“ and against ”gender violence; “summon the social agents”; review “one by one” the laws and measures that have had the vote of EH Bildu; convene the regional presidents to discuss European funds; water policy and regional financing; and convert the Presidency of the European Union into a “matter of State”.