Susanna Griso pulls from the archives to disarm Feijóo over the grandchildren's law in 'Espejo Público': "The Popular Party itself was in favor"

The interview of Alberto Núñez Feijóo on Espejo Público was marked by a clash with Susanna Griso over the so-called grandchildren's law. The presenter reminded the leader of the Popular Party of the position his party had maintained in the past on this issue and also reproached him for questioning the electoral census before the upcoming elections.

The exchange began when Griso asked Feijóo if he still maintained that the law responds to a case of “social engineering”. “Mr. Feijóo, do you maintain your accusation of social engineering against the Government for the grandchildren's law?”, the journalist asked.

“No, it is not an accusation, it is a description that this is social engineering”, replied the president of the PP. He then argued that “it is not a law, nor is it for grandchildren”, but “an instruction that changes the law” and that “it does not affect grandchildren, but rather affects great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren and any person who originally had an ancestor who was Spanish”.

Feijóo insisted that the problem, in his opinion, is that nationality is granted “without modifying the Civil Code, the nationality law and simply with an instruction”, which, he stated, can lead to the issuance of “two and a half million passports, most of them based on an instruction, not a law”.

It was then that Griso resorted to the archives to question the Popular Party's change of discourse. “With the philosophy of the law, you agree, right? On granting nationality to the children of exiles and grandchildren”, she pointed out. Feijóo replied: “We proposed it in 2007”.

The presenter went a step further by recalling the position the PP had defended regarding economic emigrants. “But the extension to emigrants for economic reasons… The Popular Party itself was in favor of extending that law to benefit economic immigrants in the past”, she affirmed.

Feijóo avoided entering into that contradiction and defended that “there is no comparative law, no country in the European Union that does this or that even allows people who do not have an effective relationship to vote in a country”.

In the final stretch of the interview, Griso questioned the PP's questioning of institutions and the electoral census before the elections. “It is very serious that a party with aspirations to govern in Spain is questioning the entire state apparatus”, she stated.

To illustrate that idea, he resorted to a football comparison: “The feeling we have is a bit like Mourinho, now that Florentino is signing him again. That thing about criticizing the pitch before playing the match”. And he concluded: “Perhaps what you are demonstrating is a certain weakness, because before the general elections you are already putting the bandage before the wound”.

Feijóo rejected that interpretation and replied that “what we show is enormous responsibility and taking our country seriously”.