The president of the Xunta de Galicia and candidate for the presidency of the People’s PartyAlberto Núñez Feijóo, appeared today in Tenerife, in his first public act in the Canary Islands, as the alternative of «calm reformism» and «return to political centrality in Spain». He defined himself as “a politician with traceability” and “a militant of freedom, peace and prosperity.” He promised “serenity, trajectory and certainty”, and opted for “a PP of majorities”, a more effective management of the interests of citizens, the improvement of public services, the closed defense of Europe and of “a united nation and not divided, where those who win the elections govern and where having different points of view does not mean being enemies».
Hundreds of militants and sympathizers of the PP received Feijóo on a very sunny morning in the Maritime Park of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, where Ukrainian flags waved in memory of those who suffered from the Russian invasion. The Galician president, who made a stopover on the island before traveling to the Conference of Presidents in La Palmaarrived at the event with music from AC/DC, escorted by the regional president of the PP in the Canary Islands, Manuel Dominguez; the head of the party in Tenerife, Emilio Navarro, and the newly appointed island coordinator of the popular Tenerife, Lope Afonso. Navarro, who presented Feijóo as “the next president of Spain”, defended that the PP “was not born of marketing or populism”, and winked at the militancy by naming people present who “work day by day for this party ». Dominguez acknowledged that the open internal crisis in the PP has made it live its worst days in politicsfor which he apologized: «We cannot hide reality, the PP has gone through the worst moments it has ever experienced (…). A huge gap has opened, we have bled like never before and we all know that when there are internal wounds, closing them is extremely complicated». For Domínguez, Feijóo is “the only man capable of closing those wounds, the only man capable of stopping the bleeding and giving us back our hope.” And he thanked him for having taken the step of becoming “the only alternative to the misrule of Pedro Sanchez (PSOE)».
After making his debut in Valencia in his first act as a candidate to preside over the PP, Núñez Feijóo took the stage at the Parque Marítimo to start showing the letters of the new PP that will preside after the congress scheduled for April. Without naming Vox at any time, he distanced himself from the PP’s government partners in Castilla y León, and defended a return to centrist politics in Spain, «with a PP of majorities, a PSOE without command capacity, a nationalism in the opposition and a country without representation neither to the left of the PSOE nor to the right of the PP».
The Galician president, who has been a member of the PP since 2000 and since 1991 has worked “under the orders of the Governments of Galicia and Spain”, thanked the support of “55,000 endorsements that show that the PP is once again a party of unity ». And he assured that he has taken the step because he has “a project” for Spain and for the PP, of which he stressed that he hopes to form a team that offers Spain a better government than the one it has”, capable of contributing “serenity, trajectory, certainties , safety and trust.
After boast of its four absolute majorities and the support of Galician citizens, he outlined part of his creed: «I believe in a management policy, which creates confidence so that people take risks, invest and create jobs. In the improvement of public services, without any doubt, amendment or scratch. In solving the problems of citizens, not creating new problems or fragmenting society. And he insisted on defending public services such as health and education, “but with freedom and knowledge in the classroom, not with ideology and manipulation.”
After a nod to Correos, he stressed that he believes in the policy that favors growth and employment: «We must not end wealth, we must end poverty. The problem is not that people earn money, the problem is that people do not have jobs. He remarked that he defends “a contained tax policy, low taxes that allow people to decide what they spend their money on,” and an administration that offers more solutions than problems.
Feijóo stressed that believes “in calm reformism”, the one that «interests the Spaniards», which is based on «maintaining the institutional architecture of Spain, the one we have created for 40 years». This defense of the state of the autonomies was another way to get away from Vox: “One thing is to rehabilitate a house that should go down in history and another thing is to destroy the house every time Spain changes government.” He also distanced himself from the extreme right by stressing that she believes “deeply in Europe” and by defining himself as a “militant for freedom, peace and prosperity.”
“I believe in a mature policy, the one that I have been practicing all this time, and I very much doubt that the Spaniards are interested in seeing a reality show led by the President of the Government of Spain. With a war at the gates of Europe and a deep economic crisis, announcing a reality show of the Prime Minister gives a perfect example of this immature and frivolous policy”, he lamented.
“As a good Galician”, he closed his speech with several questions: “Why do I have to talk about pacts with other parties if I want a broad pact with the citizens? Why do I have to establish vetoes if what matters to me is getting votes? Why can’t I aspire to a different policy, inspired by yesterday and thought of tomorrow? Why can’t I say that the new policy is a lousy policy? Before saying goodbye he announced that tomorrow he will ask Pedro Sanchez that “in a limit situation like the current one, lower all taxes on electricity, gas, gasoline and diesel.”
