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I am very happy", so resounding has been the former President of the Government, José María Aznar, in his first public speech after the victory of the Popular Party in the municipal elections and the electoral advance. "There is a social majority that wants a change, has spoken in a very clear way," said Aznar, who has assured that the electoral result of the municipal elections can reinforce "the victorious reality for the center right" in the next general elections on July 23.

"The majority of Spaniards are tired of enduring leftist experiments, of extremist minorities governing the country and wanting serenity, and all those things are going to be confirmed in the next elections," said Aznar, who believes that the electoral advance is "a desperate act" of the president of the Government.

In his opinion, Pedro Sánchez has taken this decision to "avoid a political trial of his party. He has issued an order, it is a call against his party, to prevent an open crisis in the communist left and the socialist left," he said. However, he believes that this decision will only be translated in one way: "The Spaniards will ratify in July what they have expressed last Sunday," he has bet.

On Alberto Núñez Feijóo, candidate of the Popular Party, Aznar has assured that he sees him "very well focused" and has placed him in the group of "the defenders of the constitutional unity of Spain, of the historical legacy of the Spanish Transition". On all of them, Aznar believes that "they are capable of erecting themselves as a guarantee against the weakness for surrender of the president of the Government."

Aznar, who governed Spain for two terms, believes that what is needed after the legislature of Sánchez is to return to the concept of what he has described as "the open Spain: today Spain is a society in divergence and we have to be a society in convergence, that means more freedom, more equality for all, "he analyzed.

After the appearance of this Wednesday of the President of the Government, in which he has radicalized his speech, placing all conservative groups on the extreme right, at the height of Bolsonaro and Trump, Aznar has assured that the Spanish left "has an intellectual setback of 80 years and its talent has diminished in a very clear way: He who is not a fascist, is about to be," he said, arousing laughter from the audience. "What is important is that there is a Spanish social majority that will be articulated around the majority of the Popular Party," he continued, returning to seriousness.

LATIN AMERICAN ALLIANCES

Aznar has made all these statements in a conversation with the director of EL MUNDO, Joaquín Manso, at the Congress of the Business Council Alliance for Ibero-America (CEAPI) inaugurated by King Felipe VI in the morning and that these days is held in the auditorium of the Reina Sofía Museum. There, Manso also asked him about the situation in Latin America and the need for Spain to be the link with Europe, which was one of the objectives of the presidency of the Union that our country faces from July.

The politician believes that "Spain has to be the European expression of the desires and ambitions of Ibero-America", however, the situation of a "divergent" country believes that "it provides fewer services than it could provide". As an example, Aznar has spoken of the presidency of the European Union, which "could have been a great opportunity but it will not be," he said. Not only because there are elections, but because Aznar distrusts what is being prepared: "there could have been a great agenda, but it is not known," he said.

Faced with this opportunity that Aznar already gives for lost, he has reflected on the performance of Sánchez: "Serious leadership consists of knowing how to dispense with personal interests for the common interest. The opposite is what we are experiencing, for a political survival one ends with everything."

More focused on Latin America, Aznar is very critical of the attempt to rehabilitate Nicolás Maduro, president of Venezuela, led by Lula, a Brazilian counterpart, this week. "It is the rehabilitation of a cruel and unacceptable dictatorship," he said. Aznar believes that Lula should look at what the Colombian Gustavo Petro does, and this in turn look at Lula's steps. "They aspire to the same thing, I don't believe in populist policies."

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