The PP draws an opposition "without truce" and prepares a radical turn in policies such as immigration or employment if it reaches La Moncloa

The Popular Party wants to make it clear that, in its opinion, the policies promoted by the Government of Pedro Sánchez have “an expiration date.”

Although in Génova they are aware that this change can only materialize if they reach La Moncloa, the message they convey is that, until then, they will maintain an opposition “without truce,” both from Congress and in public debate, with the aim of confronting the main decisions of the Executive and beginning to outline the model they intend to apply if they come to power.

The latest example of this strategy was led this Tuesday by Alberto Núñez Feijóo during a meeting with the Círculo de Empresarios Vascos, in Bilbao, where he identified absenteeism as one of the problems that Spain must face. The offensive continued this Wednesday with a battery of parliamentary initiatives in Congress focused on the extraordinary process of regularization of immigrants promoted by the Government, which has registered 1.2 million applications.

Feijóo called absenteeism a “cancer” and defended —mixing concepts— that it must be reduced “with or without union agreement.” The leader of the PP also questioned whether a worker “earns the same and has the same benefits when they go to work as when they don't.”

Parliamentary offensive against “the traps”

Employment is not the only area in which the popular party wants to distance itself from the Executive. Immigration has become one of the main fronts of opposition, in which the PP has hardened its discourse to approach positions defended by VOX.

“Are they trying to nationalize socialists?” asked the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, a few days ago, again sowing doubts about alleged electoral fraud ahead of the 2027 elections. Along the same lines, Feijóo accused the Government of wanting to “manufacture two and a half million voters” through the Democratic Memory Law —in force since October 2022 and unrelated to the regularization process— and fueled the idea of alleged “electoral engineering.”

That discourse coincides with some of the messages that VOX has been using about immigration. The leader of the party, Santiago Abascal, has maintained that “mass regularization will bring insecurity, collapse, and Spaniards will pay for it,” while the PP now focuses part of its offensive on denouncing an alleged electoral use of the process and questioning its effects on public services, security, or the administrative capacity of the State.

In that context, the Popular Group has registered a broad parliamentary offensive with which it intends to scrutinize the extraordinary regularization process promoted by the Executive and demand a change of course in migration policy so that “the Government complies without tricks with the European Pact on Migration and Asylum and explains what studies, reports or evaluations it based its decision on to approve its mass regularization process.”

The PP has registered a battery of 22 parliamentary questions to ascertain the real impact of the regularization process. 
The popular party members maintain that the measure has been marked “by improvisation, lack of planning, and the collapse of numerous offices in charge of processing applications.” They demand information on the number of files submitted and resolved, their territorial distribution, the profile of the beneficiaries, and the consequences it may have on public services such as housing, social services, or schooling.

They also ask about the extraordinary resources mobilized to manage the process and about possible cases detected of documentary fraud or applicants with criminal or police records.

The parliamentary offensive is completed with the request for the appearance in Congress of the Minister of Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations, Elma Saiz. The Popular Group wants both to explain the planning of the regularization process and its effects on public services, the consular network, the international protection system, and national security.

With initiatives like this, the national leadership of the PP seeks to reinforce the idea that it will not limit its role to exercising parliamentary control over the Government, but will use each debate to present its own alternative. The strategy involves confronting the Executive on issues such as immigration, employment, or economic management, insisting that these policies will change substantially if Alberto Núñez Feijóo manages to reach La Moncloa.

The Government comes out in force against Feijóo

Both La Moncloa and Ferraz have coincided in their arguments to respond to the words of the PP leader about absenteeism and the political direction he proposes for an eventual arrival in government.

From the Ministry of Labor, led by Yolanda Díaz, they criticize Feijóo for aligning himself with the discourse that, in their opinion, employers have been defending for years and recall that these are "rights" that are already "fortunately protected" by the Workers' Statute.

From the socialists' headquarters, they maintain that Alberto Núñez Feijóo "hints a little more at what his true project for Spain is" and emphasize the "lack of moderation" of someone who aspires to govern the country.

Sources from Génova assure they do not understand the Government's criticisms, although they consider it "normal that the Executive does not like what we say" because, they insist, "we are here to change them."