Feijóo warns Pablo Casado: "We cannot be happy, we are missing five million votes"

The first week after the 10-N elections has been a shock for the right wing. The leader of Citizens, Albert Rivera, has resigned, Vox has begun to fantasize about being the alternative and the PP has been lying on the couch to debate with himself about governance. The popular ones have completed at the polls a remarkable comeback, from 66 to 89 seats, but with an unsweetable bittersweet taste, because they have not fulfilled their expectations - to reach the hundred deputies -, nor have they managed to stop the advance of those of Santiago Abascal, nor have they convinced the million orange voters that he preferred to abstain.

With that sense of satisfaction contained, the territorial leaders of the PP arrived at the National Executive Committee that was held on Tuesday. And that was key. Not only because the news bomb of the pre-agreement between the PSOE and United We can burst into full deliberations of the popular dome, but, also, for what was said there about the strategy followed and the one to be followed.

It is true that the announcement of a coalition of Pedro Sánchez (president) and Pablo Iglesias (vice president) contained the barons, who thought to push more towards the path of "patriotic abstention", but there was one that did push the spirits of Genoa with a self-criticism without half measures. It was Alberto Núñez Feijóo. The president of the Xunta de Galicia called to reach out to the PSOE for a hypothetical pact of the legislature, and dried up optimism about the results obtained by Pablo Casado on 10-N: «We can not be happy, we are missing five million votes, ”he snapped at the president of the party, who had been optimistic. This is revealed to EL MUNDO sources of the Executive Committee.

Last Sunday, the PP won five million votes. They are almost 700,000 more than April 28, but three million less than in 2016 and almost six million less than in 2011. What Feijóo meant is that the fishing grounds where Casado fish is not five or six million voters , but it has to aspire to agglutinate the wide bases of the center right (and beyond). «We have to broaden the party and be what it has always been: a meeting point among many sensibilities», the Galician leader says, who appeals that in the PP it fits «people who are more right, more liberal, more conservative, more center, more reformist, more center left ».

The barons were appealed to the "wide" center during the Committee. That is to say, to deepen even more in the turn towards the templaza, in depth and form, that Casado has undertaken since May - after the hit of 28-A - and that they applaud, but do not see yet enough. «Through moderation we will eat at Cs, and with a solid and credible project we will give Vox a good bite. Not today, but in the medium term, ”says one of them.

The reconstruction of the meeting made by the popular leaders consulted by this newspaper leaves passages of notable interest, but none of the power of the influential Galician baron. "Feijóo said one very hard thing: that we talk a lot about Vox, Citizens and fragmentation, but we don't look at ourselves and the reasons why they don't vote for us," says one of the leaders present in the conclave. That is as much as saying that, for him, rather than examining where the lost votes are (those "five million" of voters), Genoa should spend more time thinking about how to seduce them. If not everyone, yes to those who occupy the center.

Since Sanchez has initiated his negotiations for the investiture with a pact with United We and an approach to the independentistas of ERC, the popular leaders of the moderate wing believe that it is the president of the Executive in functions who has to take the first step and call Casado, and then reach out for a governance pact that safeguards the territorial integrity of Spain .

The opposition leader must comply - they affirm - the phrase he pronounced on the election night: «We are going to see what Sanchez poses and then we will exercise our responsibility, because Spain cannot remain blocked». It's something that Genoa's management shares: if the PSOE breaks up with Podemos, there will be room for that debate. "To start, take the phone," they shave the socialist leader, since Sunday night he did not answer Casado's call and has not yet returned it.

In case there was occasion to rehearse the "patriotic" route, the president of the PP of Extremadura , José Antonio Monago, advised Casado to do it based on "a State pact in a few things, two or three", so that "the people be clear about what it is and what it is for ». Why did it affect that? Because Casado has proposed to Sanchez 14 state pacts to support the legislature, and those are too many points for an emergency agreement. The main barons support the idea.

The spokeswoman for the PP in Congress, Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo took the floor in the Executive Committee to ask for "a Government of constitutional concentration" to include PSOE, PP and Cs. "It is a historic compromise," he said, that it would be carried out with "sharp and non-negotiable conditions," especially the "breaking of the [PSOE] agreements with the nationalists everywhere," he said.

But the truth is that the news of the embrace of Sánchez e Iglesias overshadowed all the depth charges that were said there. After the conclave, Casado appeared before the media, but did not admit questions, to immediately address the traditional meal with the barons held after each National Executive Committee. It must be remembered that at the last post-election meeting of this body, on May 27, Casado stayed attending the press ... while the regional leaders shared anger and criticism. They then transferred him at lunch.

And this time, were there long knives on the Genoa table? "No, the food went well ... quieter than the committee," he stops, laughing, one of the attendees.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• PP
• PSOE
• Citizens
• Vox
• Pablo Casado
• Spain
• United We Can
• We can
• Pablo Iglesias
• Pedro Sanchez
• José Antonio Monago
• Estremadura
• ERC
• Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo
• Alberto Nunez Feijoo
• Albert rivera
• Politics
• CIS Survey
• European elections

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