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The Popular Party was the most voted party in the elections of July 23, but it remained at the gates of the important thing: adding the majority of the deputies of the Congress. To four seats, in particular. However, in the rest of the institutions the popular accumulate the largest share of power in its history. The PP presides over 11 of the 17 autonomous communities and vice-president of the Canary Islands. And it governs in the two autonomous cities. It has the mayors of Madrid, Valencia, Seville, Zaragoza, Valladolid, Malaga or Albacete, among others. And, in addition, it has an absolute majority in the Senate.

To that enormous share of power will be added tomorrow the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), which will stop capiteaar the socialist Abel Caballero to make way for a president of the PP. The popular already have the necessary endorsements to achieve an absolute majority in the plenary of the federation, and are only waiting for Alberto Núñez Feijóo to decant the balance between the possible candidates.

The favorite for the position, according to the leaders of the PP consulted, is the mayor of Zaragoza, Natalia Chueca, but María José Catalá, first mayor of Valencia, cannot be ruled out yet. And neither to Gema Igual, third option of the shortlist and mayor of Santander.

The final decision, as always happens in Feijóo's PP, will be announced by the party leader at the last minute. The fact that both Jorge Azcón, president of Aragon, and Carlos Mazón, Valencian baron, have proposed candidates, has brought out the name of Gema Igual, who was already vice president of the FEMP. But Santander already led the federation when the mayor was Íñigo de la Serna, and that reduces his options. However, all those consulted agree that Feijóo has expressed on several occasions his good opinion about the mayor of Zaragoza.

The FEMP is the icing on the cake of power of the PP of Feijóo. The popular have achieved enough numbers to preside over it after reaching an understanding with Vox and small regional parties.

The unappealable victory of the center-right in the municipal elections of May 28 left no options to repeat the PSOE. The PP tripled its power in the Spanish provincial capitals, going from the 10 it achieved in 2019 to 30 in 2023 (24 of them, alone), and governs in 3,193 municipalities, 40% of the total of Spain. This represents a population of 22.3 million inhabitants, 46.5% of the total population of Spain.

With these data -passed through the filters of representativeness of the FEMP-, the candidacy of the PP had at hand the presidency and control of the majority, both in the Governing Board and in the Territorial Council of the federation.

With the slogan "The future is local", on Saturday the XIII Plenary Session of the FEMP will be held. It will set out the objectives of the work for the 2023-2027 mandate. In addition to electing the governing bodies and the new direction, the federation wants to "indicate the lines of work" for four years. These objectives become commitments for the supra-municipal entity from day one.

  • PP
  • Alberto Núñez Feijóo
  • PSOE