Two months and five days after arriving at the Presidency of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo will finally have his first opportunity to confront Pedro Sánchez face to face. In the control session of the Government that is being held today, at 4:00 p.m., in the Senate, the leader of the main opposition party will be able to contrast in person his model, his proposals, his style and his tone with that of the President of the Executive . In the midst of the Andalusian election campaign and with the inflationary spiral in the background, Feijóo will try to take the confrontation to the field that he believes is best for him, that of the economy, turning it into a kind of mini-debate on the economic state of the nation.
“Does the President of the Government consider that his Executive is up to the needs of Spanish families?” This is the question that Senator Feijóo will ask the President of the Government. Although he is aware that Sánchez controls the times -he will close the intersection of interventions-, in the PP they believe that it is an “important” day because “the Spaniards are going to be able to confront the differences in form and substance between the two models : that of Pedro Sánchez, who is the model of incompetence and lack of credibility, and the model of stability, growth and employment, with concrete proposals, of Feijóo». This was said yesterday by the general secretary of the popular party, Cuca Gamarra.
But in La Moncloa they have it just as clear: if the leader of the PP wants to talk about the economy, they will talk about the economy, with data. 20, 50 and 1,000. These are some of the figures with which the chief executive will try to deactivate Feijóo’s offensive. Twenty million members of Social Security; 50% of indefinite contracts and 1,000 euros of the Minimum Salary. In the Government they complain that the “noise” and the “nervousness” of the popular ones prevents them from clearly reaching the citizens with the measures they are promoting.
The media attention generated by this first face-to-face will serve Sánchez to put the accent on them, while emphasizing that the PP voted against economic initiatives such as labor reform, the increase in the minimum wage or the decree of economic measures for the war in Ukraine. The message will be that the popular have opposed measures that sought to make life easier for people and meant economic savings for the “Spanish families” to which Feijóo will allude.
According to sources in Genoa, the president of the PP will focus his speech -which he has prepared together with his Cabinet director, Marta Varela- on the bad inflation data (8.7% as a general year-on-year figure in May, and 4.9% the underlying), in which the price of electricity is 186% more expensive than last year or in the growth of the debt. And he will once again reiterate his “outstretched hand” to agree on measures against the rise in the CPI, with the document prepared by the PP as a basis.
In addition, it will affect the recovery of “parliamentary courtesy” and “respect” between popular and socialists, banishing the “insults” that Feijóo has complained about in recent weeks. “We defend a moderate discrepancy,” they say in the PP. “I hope that Sánchez changes his tone, although in reality we hope that he will say that Feijóo is the same as Casado, that the PP is Vox and that the PP is Gürtel …”, he foresees in Genoa. “The lack of respect, that constant resort to insult and disqualification of those who represent the alternative, is one more symptom of the PSOE’s weakness, nerves and desperation,” Gamarra insisted yesterday, at a press conference offered at the headquarters national party of the PP, after the Steering Committee.
The accusations of tension are crossed. This first face-to-face comes at a time when there is great discomfort with Feijóo in the Government. His accusations that the unemployment figures are “made up” caused great anger. They believe that this type of statement lacks “rigor” and “seriousness” and would do nothing but place it at the level of Married. They did not expect such an attack and consider it out of place. It will be one of the arguments that Sánchez uses in the Senate.
In any case, the Government downplays the importance of this first face-to-face and the fact that from now on, once a month, Feijóo can debate directly with Sánchez in the Senate. «Absolute normality. Nothing has changed, ”explained Isabel Rodríguez, spokesperson for the Executive, in that purpose of subtracting all prominence from the president of the PP. “He is the leader of the opposition. Nothing more”.
In the PP they also take away iron, ultimately, from this afternoon’s parliamentary duel. «Feijóo is used to being a government, not an opposition; he no longer closes the debates, after 13 years doing it, and debuts in a setting in which he does not manage the times », they limit in his environment.
What effect can face to face have in the Andalusian campaign? In the PP they believe that “what the Spanish, and therefore the Andalusians, are going to be able to see, is who is only concerned about them.” “It can be compared that in the face of incompetence and tension, there is another possible government, from moderation, from respect, from the general interest and for employment and stability,” Gamarra emphasized. “What we propose on June 19 is what we also propose at the national level,” he added, since “in this campaign we are seeing the harmony” of Feijóo “with the way Juanma Moreno works.”
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