Do you remember Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the moderate one, who arrived in Madrid in 2022 to preside over the Popular Party at a national level? The one who promised to do politics for all Spaniards, a centrist, moderate policy, far from excesses and designed for adults.
Well, that same Alberto Núñez Feijóo is going to achieve something historic in the Popular Party: to overtake Vox, the far-right party chaired by Santiago Abascal, from the right. And he will do so, to a large extent, with the invaluable help of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of the Community of Madrid, whose strategy the national leader of the PP now seems to have joined.
It may seem like a subjective opinion, but I am going to refer to the facts.
A discourse more typical of Vox than of the moderate PP
This weekend, the Popular Party's first pre-campaign event for the general elections on November 29, already called, was held. At that event, Alberto Núñez Feijóo uttered some words that invite reflection: "I don't come from saunas or sewers."
I propose an exercise: think about whether this type of statement is more typical of a far-right discourse, like that of Vox, characterized by populism, hyperboles, exaggerations, and unfounded accusations, or if it fits into the discourse of a center-right party that aspires to represent a broad majority of society.
But Feijóo went further. "Who in the Socialist Party gave the order to get rid of the judge investigating the president's brother?" he asked. And he added another question: "Who in the governing party gave the order to hire hitmen?"
It is worth dwelling on the seriousness of these accusations. As far as I know, nothing known about the investigation of the so-called Leire Díez case allows us to conclude that Pedro Sánchez, or anyone on his orders, has asked to hire a hitman to solve a problem, as the PP leader suggested.
I insist: we are not dealing with an interpretation of his words, but with statements made by Alberto Núñez Feijóo himself during the start of the popular pre-campaign.
In Spain, however much some maintain that we live in a dictatorship, we continue to have a democratic system in which elections are called in accordance with the law and in which the rule of law prevails. It is contradictory to speak of a dictatorship while participating in the electoral processes of a democracy. However, both the PP and Vox frequently resort to this argument to delegitimize Pedro Sánchez's government and, by extension, question the functioning of the democratic system.
In a democracy, moreover, the principle of presumption of innocence must be respected. Political accusations cannot replace evidence or be presented as proven facts when they are not.
Ayuso, the mafia and the theory of electoral fraud
Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who also starred in the PP's pre-campaign kick-off event, went even further by stating that "the mafia governs us." These are the words of the president of the Community of Madrid, who once again resorted to one of the Popular Party's usual arguments, both in Madrid and at a national level: the alleged existence of electoral fraud.
The theory of electoral fraud is no longer an exclusive issue of Ayuso or Vox. Alberto Núñez Feijóo has also taken up the gauntlet. This same week he recalled that he had been president of Correos and expressed his distrust towards those who hold that position.
In my view, this argument presents significant gaps. Those who hold the theory of electoral fraud could ask themselves, following that same logic, what would have happened in previous elections if Feijóo himself presided over Correos. I am not implying that anything irregular happened, but rather pointing out the inconsistency of sowing doubts about the system without providing evidence to support them.
Those of us who have studied the Spanish electoral system know that it has numerous controls and guarantees, precisely to make it difficult to manipulate the results. Talking about electoral fraud requires evidence, not insinuations or generic suspicions.
Nor does it make sense to confuse postal voting with CERA voting, corresponding to Spaniards residing abroad. These are different procedures, with their own characteristics and guarantees. Mixing them contributes to feeding confusion instead of offering rigorous explanations about the functioning of the electoral system.
The opposition cannot consist of delegitimizing democracy
The Popular Party, both at the national level and in the Madrid autonomous community, seems to have adopted part of Vox's discursive strategies: populism, exaggerations, accusations without proof, and a hardening of discourse on issues such as immigration.
The issue is not that the PP criticizes the Government. Opposition is necessary in any democracy, and the party has reasons and arguments it can use to question the decisions of Pedro Sánchez and his Executive. Political disagreement is part of the normal functioning of institutions.
The problem arises when criticism transforms into a strategy of delegitimizing the electoral and democratic system. One thing is to scrutinize the Government, denounce possible irregularities with evidence, and demand accountability; a very different thing is to sow doubts about the fairness of elections without providing evidence to support them.
Lying, resorting to hyperbole, and feeding unfounded theories of electoral fraud is not responsible opposition. It is contributing to the deterioration of public trust in institutions and questioning the rules that allow democratic coexistence.
And the Popular Party seems to have settled into that strategy. To the point that, at times, it gives the impression of competing with Vox to see who adopts the harshest discourse, who resorts to the most serious accusations, and who takes political confrontation further.
That a party with the historical trajectory and electoral weight of the PP adopts discursive strategies associated with the far-right is, at the very least, worrying. Not only because of the tone of public debate, but also because of the consequences it can have for trust in institutions and the democratic system.
In short, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, that leader who arrived in Madrid in 2022 with the promise of representing a moderate alternative, seems to have abandoned much of that image to compete with Vox on its own ground: that of exaggerations, accusations, and the questioning of institutions.
The conclusion is clear: if this is the tone at the start of the pre-campaign, the coming months are going to be very long for us. Both the pre-campaign and the subsequent electoral campaign leading up to the November 29 elections.
