• Poll The motion awakens the left and weakens the right: 36% give the winner to the PSOE and 39% see Vox as a loser
  • Moncloa Government trusts the comeback to the motion of censure while silencing the ministers of Podemos

The president of the Popular Party and leader of the opposition, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has described on Thursday the motion of censure of Vox against Pedro Sánchez, settled with a resounding parliamentary defeat, as "an improper and unproductive spectacle", at the height of a "populist" formation and that is fully far from the roadmap of the acronym that he directs. "I do not share this way of doing politics and that is why I have abstracted myself from that grotesque and I have dedicated myself to reinforcing the alternative, the only one, which is to rebuild the international image of Spain and make the politics that our country deserves," he said.

Núñez Feijóo, who arrived on Wednesday night in the community capital to have dinner with the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and who today has an agenda full of meetings with three commissioners and attendance at the meeting of the popular family Europe prior to the celebration of a European Council, has marked distances with the Government and with Vox, in the line that has also followed the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso. When something flashy about national politics happens, the media asks Spanish leaders if their colleagues have asked them about it. The answer, 99% of the time is no, to try to remove iron. But this time it has been Feijóo himself who has brought up the issue: "All my colleagues have asked me, who was the opposition candidate and how the government used this spectacle in Spanish politics," he said to emphasize how in his opinion the motion of censure has damaged not only the institutions and the quality of democracy, but the image of the country a few months after assuming the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU.

"I don't share this way of doing politics. I have therefore abstracted myself from this political grotesqueness. I have dedicated myself to building the alternative," the popular leader said 24 hours after the motion failed with barely the support of Vox. This proves, in the eyes of Feijóo, "the populist and infantile politics" that Vox represents and that is enormously far from the PP's plan.

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Considering cold.

Feijóo dodges but does not hit

  • Writing: JORGE BUSTOS Madrid

Feijóo dodges but does not hit

Analysis.

Motions can give surprises and give them

  • Writing: LUCÍA MÉNDEZ Madrid

Motions can give surprises and give them

As this newspaper has been reporting, the popular seek to quickly shelve a motion of censure in which they have kept a low profile considering that Ramón Tamames was not the right candidate, that the Vox project did not represent "the majority, which is where the PP is", nor the forms used during the debate in Congress. "We have our agenda and our path," Feijoo said from Brussels.

The Galician politician has sought to separate himself from both the Government and the rest of the opposition, but also present himself as a "serious, centrist" alternative in a sea of "populism". "We have seen in this mock motion of no confidence that attachment to office is the only glue of the broken coalition. The PP does not present itself or facilitate propping up the government or following other formations. We have our agenda, our path," he insisted.

"The happy arcadia of populism"

As he did on his first visit to Brussels last year, the popular leader has met with his colleagues offering a speech focusing on economic policy. In the room, according to sources of the European People's Party, he has taken the opportunity to point out that he was happy that serious and key issues for Europe were addressed, such as the loss of competitiveness and international challenges, instead of "theatrical" issues as he has defined the motion of censure.

"Sanchez has won another vote, but we want and hope to defeat him at the polls. Not in one, that of the Congress, but that of the whole of the Spanish population that will pronounce all the polls of the territory. We must turn the page on these four years of populism mixed with independence and return to serious politics. I'm not going to sell a happy arcadia, that's what the populism of the current government is for, but a normal country. A country of adults. And that is why I will continue to do adult politics and not these games that discredit institutions, the Spain we have built," he said. "I am with the millions of people who believe that it has been a waste of time and an instrument to breathe air into a very worn president and for Yolanda Díaz to launch her candidacy of appropriation of Podemos and for Vox to recover presence. But we Spaniards don't care about this."

Turning point with Vox

One of the topics of the day is the distancing with Vox, foreseeable before elections like those of May but that could also have consequences in the face of possible post-electoral pacts, but also in the voting strategies of citizens.

Asked about these dynamics and Díaz Ayuso's decision in Madrid, Feijóo has been clear. "I don't know what President Ayuso has said exactly, but she has enough support to make her own policy. Vox is against the Madrid Budget and a fiscal policy that encourages investment, so I understand and share the president's statements of saying 'I do not count on you' because you are not interested in the Community of Madrid, but to seek a profit from anti-politics and that I do not share, "he said.

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  • To:
  • PP
  • Community of Madrid
  • Europe
  • Yolanda Diaz
  • Alberto Núñez Feijóo
  • Isabel Diaz Ayuso
  • Pedro Sanchez
  • Ursula von der Leyen
  • European Commission