The PP politicizes Spain's second star and turns the World Cup into another offensive against Sánchez

The Popular Party has needed less than a day to turn Spain's World Cup victory into another chapter of its offensive against Pedro Sánchez. The celebration for the second star entered Génova's press conference this Monday and ended up mixed with corruption, judicial processes, and the upcoming general elections.

The Deputy Secretary of Sectoral Coordination, Alma Ezcurra, congratulated the National Team after the party's Steering Committee, although her intervention quickly shifted from football to the Government. According to the popular leader, the championship has allowed Spaniards to "look up from the quagmire" and talk for a few days less about "causes, defendants, decadence, and corruption".

Ezcurra presented the team's performance as a political lesson for the country. She highlighted that Spain has won "without arrogance," without claiming medals prematurely, and "without living off the narrative," one of the expressions the PP habitually uses to attack Moncloa's communication.

"We were getting used to the worst version of Spain, and this week we remembered the best," she affirmed. The sporting triumph has thus been converted into a comparison between the champion National Team and the Government that the PP has been describing for months as exhausted, surrounded by courts, and incapable of governing.

Ezcurra herself asked for an end to the "politicization of sport" which, according to her version, the PP has been enduring for three years. The request was made during an appearance in which the popular leadership used the World Cup to talk about Sánchez, the PSOE, judicial cases, and the need to call elections.

The National Team as a political alternative to the Government

Génova's argument presents the values of Luis de la Fuente's team as the same ones Feijóo wants to convey to his political project. Humility, ambition, collective work, and absence of personalisms were contrasted with the portrait the PP paints of the Executive.

"A team that presents itself without arrogance, without claiming medals before winning them, without living off the narrative, is a winning team," Ezcurra defended. The leader added that in the National Team, each player occupies their place and no one places themselves above others.

The congratulation has ended up linked to the "national reconstruction" that Feijóo has been presenting for months as the core of his future campaign. The PP maintains that Spain is not condemned to decadence, deterioration, or mediocrity either, and places the change of Government as the political continuation of that idea.

Ezcurra dedicated a good part of the press conference to reviewing the judicial appearances scheduled for this week and described the PSOE as a "gigantic prisoner's dilemma." Afterwards, he announced that Feijóo will offer this Wednesday his traditional review of the political year, where he will again call for elections.

The National Team also entered into the attack against Sánchez's trip to Algeria. The deputy secretary ironized that the president had arrived late and was returning to receive the players at La Moncloa, before questioning the importance given by the Executive to the relationship with the North African country.

Ester Muñoz places Spain "above Sánchez"

The PP spokesperson in Congress, Ester Muñoz, was even more direct on her social networks. "Spain always above Sánchez", she wrote after the victory against Argentina, accompanying the message with two national flags.

The message again separated the country's celebration from the figure of the president, despite Sánchez having attended the final with the Kings and congratulated the players after winning the title. Hours later, he will also participate in the institutional reception planned at La Moncloa.

Muñoz had already introduced Sánchez into the conversation about the World Cup before the final. During an interview, she even ironized about the possibility that his presence in the stadium could bring bad luck to Spain. The National Team ended up winning with the president in the box, along with Felipe VI, Letizia, Princess Leonor, and Infanta Sofía.

The phrase published this Monday has been shared by different party accounts and regional leaders. The victory ceased to function solely as a reason for congratulation and became integrated into the PP's permanent campaign against the head of the Executive.

Ana Vázquez takes the World Cup directly to the polls

Deputy Ana Vázquez turned the relationship between football and politics into an explicit electoral forecast. In a video released after the final, the parliamentarian compared the 2026 victory with the World Cup won by Spain in 2010 and the subsequent absolute majority of the PP.

"In 2010 we were world champions. We had just been European champions, like now. History repeats itself," Vázquez began. She then recalled that Mariano Rajoy won the general elections held in November 2011.

"Next year there will be elections again. The Popular Party will sweep. Congratulations, Spain!" concluded the deputy, using the title won by the National Team as an announcement of a future victory for Alberto Núñez Feijóo.

The comparison relies solely on the succession of dates. Between the World Cup in South Africa and the 2011 elections, sixteen months passed, amidst a severe economic crisis, a sharp rise in unemployment, and a deep wear and tear on José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's government.

The PP then achieved 186 deputies and the only absolute majority in its recent history. Vázquez now presents the calendar as a precedent for 2027, although the next general elections still lack a specific date and Sánchez maintains his intention to finish the legislature.

Feijóo uses the Bilbao incidents against Sánchez's partners

Alberto Núñez Feijóo had paved the way during the final night itself. The leader of the PP reacted to the incidents that occurred next to the giant screen installed by his party in Doña Casilda Park in Bilbao, where a group of participants in a march in favor of the Basque national team tried to interrupt the broadcast.

The rioters knocked down fences, threw objects, and manipulated some cables before the start of the match. The signal was recovered, and the Ertzaintza identified several people within the deployed operation during the day.

"The usual suspects wanted to spoil our party, but they didn't succeed," Feijóo stated. The leader backed Esther Martínez, popular spokesperson in the Bilbao City Council, and closed his message by assuring that "totalitarianism is confronted."

Ezcurra picked up on this episode on Monday and took it to national politics. She accused the "borroka cubs" of the party that, she claimed, supports Pedro Sánchez in La Moncloa, referring to EH Bildu, of the events.

The leader also linked the altercations to another incident that occurred in Navarra and reproached the PSOE for the agreement that allowed Joseba Asiron to regain the Mayoralty of Pamplona. The PP has thus used the actions of a specific group to attack EH Bildu's parliamentary support for the Government.

Isabel Díaz Ayuso has followed a similar line and has called for a condemnation of the events that occurred in the Basque Country and Navarra. The Madrid president has spoken of extreme groups that persecute businessmen, families, and citizens, and places the incidents within a broader problem of freedom and coexistence.

A celebration turned into a talking point

The first messages published by political leaders after the match had focused on congratulating the players and recognizing the work of the National Team. The PP quickly expanded that framework to present the World Cup as a demonstration that Spain can overcome Sánchez's political stage.

Génova has found in the triumph a useful image for its strategy. Against the government it describes as decadent, a young, united, ambitious, and capable team appears. Luis de la Fuente's team ends up becoming the model with which Feijóo wants to identify himself before the next electoral cycle.

The discourse also allows the PP to dispute national symbols and present itself as their main defender. The flag, the celebration in the streets, the incidents in Bilbao, and the institutional reception have been incorporated in just a few hours into the fight between Génova and Moncloa.

The National Team will arrive in Madrid this Monday to celebrate the second star with thousands of fans. Before the players lift the Cup again before the fans, the Popular Party has already turned the victory into an electoral promise against Pedro Sánchez.