Feijóo maintains his conspiracy about the electoral system while praising Ayuso's anti-abortion policies: he promises to extend the "conceived but not born" law nationwide

The leader of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has once again questioned this Monday the guarantees of postal voting for Spaniards residing abroad by demanding a reinforcement of controls to ensure it is "reliable", while also backing the legislation promoted by Isabel Díaz Ayuso that recognizes the unborn conceived as a member of the family unit and has promised to extend it nationwide if he reaches Moncloa.

During an interview on Antena 3, Feijóo rejected Vox's proposal to eliminate postal voting for those registered in the Electoral Census of Absent Residents (CERA), but insisted on the need to increase security measures. The popular leader maintained that it is necessary to study "if additional security can be increased to make that vote reliable" and defended that it must be guaranteed that the vote arriving in Spain is "the one that person cast, the one they wanted to cast and the one that finally arrives."

The statements come in a context where the right and far-right have repeatedly fueled suspicions about various electoral mechanisms.

On the other hand, in the same interview, Feijóo announced that he will promote a state law inspired by the recently approved regulation in Madrid so that the so-called "unborn conceived" is taken into account for the purposes of family aid and benefits. The president of the PP recalled that during his time leading Galicia he already promoted similar measures and praised the expansion carried out by Ayuso in the Community of Madrid.

"Unborn conceived"

The plenary session of the Madrid Assembly approved this Thursday, July 2, with the vote in favor of the PP and Vox, the law promoted by the regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, to recognize the unborn conceived or 'nasciturus', for administrative purposes, as another member of the family unit.

This law allows families to access aid and tax benefits derived from the birth of the baby from the moment pregnancy is accredited, although in some cases a minimum number of weeks of gestation is stipulated. This law has been approved in a plenary session expressly convened, as it was planned to be raised to the last ordinary session period, that of June 18, but the Assembly Bureau paralyzed the processing of the text the day before after the PSOE-M warned that the administrative file that reached the Chamber was incomplete.

Thus, the 'nasciturus' will be taken into account from the moment pregnancy is accredited in aid that uses family unit income as a criterion, such as scholarships to study Bachillerato or the first cycle of Early Childhood Education. In addition, families with two children who are expecting a third will be able to access it from the day after the end of the 14th week of gestation. The text establishes the need for a specific certificate of "family assimilated to large family", the obtaining of which will be mandatory to access the benefits, and which will be valid until three months after the expected date of delivery.

And in the case of multiple gestation, each of the conceived will be taken into account separately for the purposes provided in the law. During the processing of the law, three amendments from the PP have been incorporated. One to homogenize the minimum week of gestation required in each case, another that enables the Government to develop the norm through decrees and regulations, and a last one to guarantee that the procedures can be carried out both telematically and in person. The law will be in force from the day after publication.

From "legal and safe" abortion to policies for the "unborn"

The vision of the right to abortion of the Madrid president has changed over the years. Ayuso now defends that, "every life matters from the first breath" and her Government is "legislating for the unborn", statements that represent a shift from the position she expressed in 2023, in an interview on 'Antena 3' with Susana Griso, when she stated that abortion "should be legal, safe", although she qualified, "infrequent", which evidences a contradiction between her defense of the right to abortion and the current policies of her Executive, aimed at incentivizing the continuity of pregnancy through different public supports.