The useless vote for the Popular Party and Feijóo's political irrelevance in Europe

On June 9, just five months ago, millions of Spaniards were called to the polls to vote in the European elections.

Von der Leyen's re-election, good news for Sánchez and bad news for Spain
Feijóo cannot get Von der Leyen to make even the slightest criticism of Sánchez at a PP event

The PP asked for votes against the socialists...

As you may recall, the Popular Party (PP) won the elections with 22 seats. During the campaign for those elections, the national president of that party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, asked for the support of the voters, stating that "the only vote that bothers Sánchez is that of the PP." In case anyone doesn't know who he was talking about, Feijóo was referring to Pedro Sánchez, the general secretary of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and current president of the Socialist International.

... and then joined forces with them in Brussels

Three days before the elections I warned here that the European People's Party (EPP) and the socialists would repeat their coalition in Brussels, a coalition that has been in place for years and which basically consists of centrists and socialists, supposed rivals in their countries, being allies in Brussels. Perhaps many centre-right voters who cast their vote for the PP were unaware of this fact, but the coalition was ultimately repeated: on election night, Ursula von der Leyen (EPP) offered the socialists a new alliance to continue to control the EU institutions together.

Von der Leyen's silence in the face of Sánchez's coup on the rule of law

As you will remember, during the European election campaign, Feijóo had asked Von der Leyen to criticize Sánchez's amnesty law, a law that constitutes a direct blow to the rule of law in Spain. Von der Leyen did not make even the slightest criticism against that law or against Sánchez, whom she has been treating as one of her main allies.

The EPP will support the socialist Teresa Ribera as European Commissioner

Furthermore, this Wednesday the EPP announced that it would support the Spanish socialist Teresa Ribera as European Commissioner, despite her disastrous management as Minister for the Ecological Transition during the recent catastrophe of the cold drop, in which she was completely missing for more than a week. It should also be noted that Ribera has not wanted to commit to resigning if she is charged in court for this management, a commitment that was demanded by both the EPP and the PP.

Thus, once again the Popular Party has shown itself to be a useless vote against the left, even being unable to convince its own partners in the EPP to vote against a disastrous minister whose environmental fanaticism has seriously harmed Spain. In addition, Feijóo has once again demonstrated his political irrelevance in Brussels, where he is not even capable of getting the EPP to be demanding with its socialist allies. Although the PP now says that it will vote against Ribera as commissioner, its vote will be irrelevant since the socialist minister will be elected as European commissioner thanks to the votes of the EPP.

A political scam that is repeated after every election

These facts lead me to ask a question: What is the purpose of the EPP? If its purpose in European politics is to form coalitions with the socialists, acting as their butlers, it would be logical for the EPP and the socialists to form a single party and stop defrauding their voters, making them believe that they are rivals.

Obviously, there is a powerful reason for them not forming a single party: to continue attracting centre-right votes in order to later implement left-wing policies, which is precisely the deception that the PP has been carrying out in Spain for years. A deception that many of its voters, by the way, seem to have not yet learned from.

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Photo: Partido Popular. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, President of the Popular Party of Spain, with Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, during a meeting on 3 July 2024.