The leader of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has left open the possibility that the PP may not run for the Senate in some provinces in the upcoming general elections on November 29, as a concession to Vox, if the far-right party decides not to have candidates in those places where it has few options to obtain representation.
The former president of Galicia has acknowledged, in an interview on Cadena SER, that negotiations with those of Abascal are open, but that, so far, nothing is closed.
Regarding a possible pact with Vox after the elections of 29N, he has stated that he wants a Government with many votes and has assured, “if the Spaniards send me to complete the majority and give stability to the Government with the third political force of my country, I am a democrat, and we will do it as we have done in the Autonomous Communities, where we have made clear what our red lines are.”
On these autonomous agreements, Feijóo, who has made continuous references to Bildu and ETA, has stated that “it will not be a hooded pact like those of the PSOE and Bildu.” He referred again to the Basque formation when asked about the fact that Vox includes in its lists a candidate with a neo-Nazi past accused of assaulting a juvenile center. His response was this: “In the next Congress, I will have to coexist with terrorists, with a firm sentence from ETA, that Bildu includes in the lists. We have coexisted with the director of Gara. If we order the priorities and the seriousness of the facts, not everything is acceptable.”
The most voted list
In the campaign for the general elections of 2023, Feijóo proposed that the most voted list govern. When questioned about whether he maintains the proposal, he said yes, but because he is sure that his party will be the most voted.
However, he has indicated that his first objective “is for Sánchez to leave the Government and to open a new stage in the country, that we abandon the decay and a certain delinquency, that decency returns to politics.”
Housing
On housing, which is ultimately what has caused the early elections, Feijóo has assured that they will build a million houses: “We are going to take all the public land and make houses 30% cheaper than those on the market. People under 40 years old will not pay taxes at the time of purchase and we will reduce the transfer tax by 60% and VAT.”
Additionally, he has committed to, in the first 100 days, “approve an Anti-Occupation Law, reform the Horizontal Property Law and approve a Land Law”.
Pensions
Regarding pensions, the PP candidate has pointed out that they cannot be touched and that his commitment consists of “updating pensions annually according to the CPI and guaranteeing the viability of pensions for young people”.
He has stated that he will not do it by decree, but by reactivating the Toledo Pact, where he will sit the unions with the employers, with the political parties and with the Government”.
Ministry of Equality
Feijóo has acknowledged that he is not going to maintain the Ministry of Equality, but will integrate it into other ministries. “The Minister of Equality cannot work from 8 to 3 and then take the AVE to spend the afternoon in Valladolid. I am going to ask the minister who is in charge of equality to take care of other things.”
To the question of whether he considers himself a feminist, he responded: “How can I not be a feminist, if I was raised with many more women than men? How can I not think that a woman has the same rights as a man or how can I not accept that there is still a wage gap?”
Abortion
He has guaranteed that women in Spain will have the best doctors and the best healthcare so that they can undergo an abortion according to the laws, “but I cannot force a doctor to perform a voluntary interruption of pregnancy,” he warned.
Regarding whether girls under 17 will need parental permission, he asserted that their parents, at least, would need to be informed. “Do you see it normal that a 16-year-old girl needs parental authorization to get a tattoo and not for a vital, transcendent, and irreversible decision?”
And if a girl wants to have an abortion and her parents do not allow it? They asked him: “That is the debate I want to raise. And I also want to make it clear that no woman will stop being a mother due to an economic problem, I commit to finding a solution for the economic problem if she wants to have a child.”
Euthanasia
The PP candidate has made it clear that he will reform the Euthanasia Law, “because the current one leaves the doctor and the specialist in a secondary role, which we have to offer to the person before making a decision”
In his opinion, “dignified life is above dignified death, which must be the end of the accreditation of that life, which cannot be maintained at minimal levels of dignity”.
Culture
Regarding the decision of the Government of Castilla y León (with Vox at the head of the Ministry of Culture) to veto public aid to films, both fiction and documentaries that “involve ideological indoctrination, partisan propaganda, or express support for specific political options”, Feijóo has indicated that “cultural censorship has no place in the Spanish Constitution.”
But he added that “sectarianism funded with public funds must have limits. With public money, partisanship cannot be done. I am absolutely in favor of reivindicative culture, but not of partisan and sectarian culture,” he emphasized.