Feijóo, if you want to be President you cannot be a chronic ignorant: maximum anger within the PP over his constant confusions

Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the Popular Party, leader of the opposition and aspirant to become president of the Government, has done it again.

He has made a mistake again for another week. And, on this occasion, in such a serious way that even leaders of the Popular Party itself, such as Juan Bravo, deputy secretary of the Treasury, have had to come out to correct their boss. Sources from the PP have also had to come out, in conversations with journalists, to clarify Feijóo's words. One more week.

After that hodgepodge in which he mixed the Grandchildren Law, the CERA vote, the external vote and the regularization of immigrants —as if everything were legally the same, when they are completely different issues—, a week later we have, habemus, another controversy starring Feijóo.

And, furthermore, on a particularly sensitive issue, because it directly affects labor rights. Feijóo assured that "labor absenteeism is a cancer that we cannot afford".

Well, I am going to explain why that statement is profoundly incorrect. Let's put the data and the legal reality on the table to understand that Feijóo is saying a falsehood or, as I argue in the title of this opinion, that he is a chronic ignorant. And no, ignorant is not an insult. It is a description.

Ignorant means to ignore what is being talked about. And chronic because it is not an isolated event, but a systematic behavior, week after week.

If someone wants to be president of the Government, they cannot be a chronic ignorant.

Legally, labor absenteeism is defined as the absence of a person from their workplace. This absence can be justified, for example by temporary disability or a legally recognized permit, or unjustified, in which case fraud could exist.

That is, being absent from work without a justifying cause can constitute fraud and, of course, that must be pursued. Reality cannot be denied. Just as there are employers who break the law, violate labor rights or do not pay overtime —conducts that must be pursued with full force—, there are also workers who try to commit fraud by simulating unjustified absenteeism. That happens. There are documented cases.

But labor absenteeism encompasses both justified and unjustified absences. A sick leave is also, legally, labor absenteeism.

That is why, when Feijóo states that "absenteeism is a cancer that we cannot afford," apart from using a particularly insensitive word to compare a labor reality with a disease that, unfortunately, practically all families have suffered in one way or another, he is also making a serious inaccuracy.

Because whoever aspires to be president of the Government should, at the very least, express themselves with legal rigor.

What all journalists understood when we heard those statements was that Feijóo was also questioning medical leave, because these are part of labor absenteeism. Then came the rectifications.

Now the Popular Party maintains that Feijóo was only referring to fraudulent, unjustified absenteeism, which, by the way, represents a very small and practically insignificant percentage within the total labor absenteeism in Spain. But that was not what he said.

Juan Bravo himself, deputy secretary of the Treasury for the Popular Party, even stated that perhaps they had not been able to explain it well. No. They did not explain it very well, nor well, nor regularly. They explained it badly. Very badly. And they did so, moreover, on a matter as delicate as labor rights.

One more week. One more mistake.

If Feijóo wants to be president of the Government, he cannot afford to be a chronic ignoramus. And I am not the only one saying this. There are already internal voices within the Popular Party speaking with journalists. I myself have spoken with sources from the PP. Not with one, nor with two, nor with three, but with multiple sources from Génova 13 and also with leaders present in the Congress of Deputies.

And what do they convey? That this situation cannot be repeated every week. That it cannot be that the party continuously has to come out to correct or qualify the words of its own leader. That it cannot be that leaders and sources of the Popular Party have to repeatedly show their face to explain what, supposedly, Feijóo meant. Because a president of the Government cannot be a layman in so many matters.

And if one does not master a subject, the reasonable thing is to prepare it before speaking. When I don't know about a topic, I consult someone who does. If it's a legal matter, I talk to a lawyer. If it's economic, with an economist. I am a journalist: I get information, I cross-reference it, and I tell it.

I don't consult ChatGPT. I consult experts. I study the matter and then I speak. Because, otherwise, it's impossible to competently exercise a public responsibility of that level.

Feijóo, if you want to be president of the Government, you cannot be a chronic ignoramus. And it's not something only I say or that a few of us think. There are also leaders and officials from your own party who, in private, admit to being fed up with this situation.

Prepare things before speaking or make way for someone who is willing to do so.