The lesson that Feijóo did not want to learn in the city where he lived before going to Madrid

@ElentirENG ES 8·30·2023 · 18:24 0

Life gives us many opportunities to learn good lessons in our immediate environment, and some waste them.

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The years in which the PP won the local elections in Vigo

Today, Vigo is known for its overwhelming local government majorities. Since 2015, the socialist Abel Caballero has been chaining absolute majorities, as a result of a way of doing politics that is a mix of circus, populism and despotism. But it was not always like this: from 1991 to 2015, the Popular Party won all the local elections in this city. In 1995 the PP even won with a resounding absolute majority, obtaining 15 of the 27 councilors.

The problem that the PP has in Galicia is that, in the absence of a party like Vox that mobilizes those voters who are reluctant to vote for the PP, it only needs to mobilize absolute majorities to be able to govern , something that is not easy at all. When it does not achieve that, what has been happening for years is that the PSOE relies on the BNG separatists to govern where it does not win. This formula was what allowed the PSOE to govern in Galicia, together with the BNG, between 2005 and 2009.

The pact that the PP offered to the socialist Abel Caballero in 2014

Of course, there have been leaders in the PSOE who do not accept the BNG, a far-left party that began its journey as the partner of Herri Batasuna in Galicia and that today is the partner of Bildu. The most famous of these socialist leaders was Francisco Vázquez, former mayor of La Coruña, whose absolute majorities in that city allowed him to avoid having to seek the support of the separatists. Abel Caballero had to live with the BNG for a few years, since he became mayor with its support in 2007 until their pact was broken in February 2014.

By then, despite having lost the local elections of 2007 and 2011, Abel Caballero had already been in power for almost two terms, which gives any mayor considerable political uncertainty in the face of certain elections. new elections. As Caballero had remained in the minority, the Popular Party had the "happy" idea of signing a government pact with the socialist mayor in May 2014. The PP claimed that it was doing it out of "responsibility", but what it achieved was giving oxygen to Abel Caballero at his moment of greatest weakness. A few months later, in the 2015 local elections, the PSOE achieved the majority absolute in Vigo (17 councilors) and the PP was left with only 7 councilors.

Feijóo repeats the mistake by offering a new pact to the PSOE

Many are unaware of this information, but Alberto Núñez Feijóo was a resident of Vigo at that time (and remained so until in 2022, after assuming the national presidency of the PP, he moved to Madrid). At that time he combined that neighborhood with his work in Santiago de Compostela as president of the Galician government. Feijóo should have taken note then of the risks of agreeing with the PSOE and wanting to be as progressive as that party, but he did not do it.

This Wednesday, Feijóo has offered a deal to Pedro Sánchez, after the president of the PP to attend the last general elections with the motto of "repealing Sanchismo". Surely Feijóo wanted to appear to be a statesman, like the PP of Vigo in 2014 when he offered a pact to Abel Caballero, but what he has achieved is that the PSOE makes fun of him. With this pact proposal, Feijóo not only conveys an image of weakness (and even a lack of dignity, for pleading for the support of an unscrupulous ruler), but also gives him a ball of oxygen to Sánchez, by presenting him as a reliable partner, contrary to what the Popular Party has been warning in its messages.

What this could mean - I hope I'm wrong - is that we are witnessing a repetition of what happened in Vigo, with Sánchez grown up by the PP's pact offer, which helps him present himself as the politician with the one that everyone wants to agree on: from the separatists and the ultra-left to the PP. Everyone except Vox. Let us remember, by the way, that in January the PP falsely accused Vox of coming to Sánchez's "rescue", despite the fact that the party chaired by Santiago Abascal he has always rejected any pact with the socialists. How should we now qualify the pact that Feijóo has offered Sánchez?

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Photo: Efe.