Feijóo dresses as a progressive to reply to Pedro Sánchez’s debate on the nation

It was not time to talk about ETA, which monopolized a large part of the intervention of the parliamentary spokesperson, Cuca Gamarra, the day before. The PP leaders who have accompanied Feijóo on his first visit to the UCM summer courses as president of the party have made an effort to justify the response offered on Tuesday, and that it was largely dominated by a terrorism that laid down its arms almost 11 years ago.

Among those present, the general coordinator, Elías Bendodo; the Institutional Deputy Secretary, Esteban González Pons; that of Economy, Juan Bravo; Organization, Miguel Tellado; that of Social Policies, Carmen Navarro; or the spokesman in the Senate, Javier Maroto. All have defended the speech of its general secretary in the coincidence with the date of the assassination of Miguel Ángel Blanco. But they have also recognized that the day after people “talk about something else” and that “a change of focus” was necessary.

Feijóo began the shift early in the morning, in an interview on Onda Cero in which he generically rejected the extraordinary taxes on banking and energy companies committed by Sánchez. Later, he got into the official car and went to San Lorenzo de El Escorial, where part of his Management Committee was waiting for him, as well as middle management and municipal officials to support him at the start of the Conference “Strengthening Europe with an alternative for the majority”.

A few meters from where Ana Aznar and Alejandro Agag got married two decades ago, Feijóo insisted on the same line that he had already marked a few minutes before and that partially amended Gamarra’s speech the day before: “In the debate on the state of the nation was highlighted that a majority of Spaniards who trusted the Government no longer trust the Government. It is not a spokesperson for reality or for the moderation to which the majority of Spaniards adhere.”

That “moderation” is represented by himself. And that supposed “moderate Spain” has been addressed in the first place. “There is a moderate Spain that has been moving away from Mr. Sánchez as he has moved away from moderation. In its flight forward, the Government is focused on changing the narrative, but not the reality”.

And, once again, he has recovered an accusation that the PP, and a part of the PSOE, have systematically launched at Sánchez since 2016, when he turned to the left in the primary fight that faced Susana Díaz, Patxi López and the apparatus of the match. “In his attempt to look more and more like Podemos, he will end up looking like former president Rodríguez Zapatero. It is doubly worrying”, he has expressed. And what does “podemize the Government” mean, according to Feijóo?: “Activate the greatest populism in economic and fiscal policy in Europe” –despite the fact that even the ECB is studying limiting the extra benefits of banking– something that “is a disservice to the PSOE, to the moderation and progressivism of our country”, says the leader of the PP. And he continues: “This moderate Spain, in which the majority of Spaniards are included, understands that progressivism and moderation, progressivism and stability, progressivism and serious politics are compatible and complementary.” “Progressivism is not radicalism, it is not instability or permanent shock. Progressivism is working for well-being and growth in the face of the misery that we are generating. And progressivism is working for the advancement of democracy against the control of the institutions that the Government is practicing”.

Feijóo has argued that the Government is in a deep “crisis”, which prevents it from “governing the crisis”, that “the division” within the Executive “was evident” on the first day of the state of the nation. “We have a group of governments of three parties that are not capable of agreeing and sharing proposals,” he said, to attack the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, who according to the leader of the PP “did not hide that she did not know the proposals” , which leads him to maintain that “the internal situation is one of decomposition”.

But, at the same time, Feijóo maintains that the measures announced by Sánchez are those of Podemos, whose government “has copied the economic proposals”, despite the fact that Podemos is visibly part of the Executive. “There is the paradox that they are not told because they want to make them profitable. I understand that Podemos is angry that his proposals have been plagiarized ”, he has settled.

Map and canteen to follow the Government

“Yesterday I was expecting something more,” confessed Feijóo, who silently attended the Sánchez-Gamarra duel, despite being able to use the Congress facilities as a senator. “I am still wondering how it is possible that in the face of the highest inflation in 40 years and the energy problem, the structural proposals were none. And the plans and the reforms were none”, he added.

After arguing that the Government does not offer any measures, Feijóo has gone on to delegitimize those proposed by Sánchez by saying that he is going “from patch to patch”. He has described the president’s speech as a “puzzle” and has recognized that he does not know “very well what the measures are” because “every 15 days new measures are brought that totally or partially amend the previous ones” with one objective: “Respond to the media headlines or government partners to maintain the coalition”.

Thus, and despite generically criticizing the government’s plan, he has avoided making a precise statement as he did not know the details. The PP will do so when the fine print is known “so as not to enter a game that the Government is interested in,” according to Feijóo in a subsequent statement to journalists. Of course, he has left a clue: “I anticipate that if the opinion is that citizens pay more to banks and electricity companies, we will be against it.”

Before the journalists, in an ironic tone, he said he needed “a map and a canteen” to follow the Government.

And if there was any doubt about the intentions of the large Ibex companies to which the new taxes announced on Tuesday by Sánchez are directed, the former Minister of Labor Fátima Báñez made it clear, who participated in the point immediately after Feijóo’s : “Employment challenges and taxation in Spain”.

Báñez’s words are interesting not only because he is one of the reference persons of the Feijóo PP, but also because he is part of the CEOE management and, in addition, charges from Iberdrola, one of the companies that will be directly affected by the new tribute to the extraordinary profits of the electricity companies.

“La carte taxes unbalance the way out of the crisis,” said Báñez, who has defended the role of companies as a “solution” because “they generate wealth and opportunities.” In his opinion, “we must not raise taxes”, but rather “support companies to generate wealth and employment” for which he has called for “taking measures based on consensus” and including “all parties”.

Báñez has opted for “the income pact” as “a country pact.” And he has issued a warning, which is consistent with what his boss, Antonio Garamendi, said: “Yesterday’s measures make savers lose a very sensitive part of their savings. We are risking the job creation of the day after tomorrow”. This is left before the PP staff.