The president of the PP and candidate for the general elections on November 29, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, maintains that it is "essential, but insufficient" for the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, to resign after the Urda railway accident (Toledo), since, in his view, the main political responsibility lies with Pedro Sánchez.
In an interview in La Vanguardia, reproduced by Europa Press, he stated that "we are not talking about a one-off failure. Spain is in systemic failure. Everything works worse because Spain is without management and without maintenance. Trains collide for the same reason that roads are full of potholes, housing is impossible or a blackout occurs".
He also stressed that one cannot be president of the Government "without understanding, without knowing how to interpret and without having explicit commitments" with Catalonia, a territory he places among his priorities. He explained that his goal is not to recentralize powers, but rather "for autonomy to work and for the State to have a presence in Catalonia".
Feijóo maintains that Catalan citizens bear a higher tax burden, suffer the highest rate of illegal occupation of homes and are among the areas with the most crimes compared with the rest of the country. To this he added that "there is a deficit in the execution of the public works budget in Catalonia".
In light of this diagnosis, he has committed to fully carrying out the investments planned in Catalonia and to presenting a report every three months on the real level of compliance: "If in Rodalies we say that we are going to invest x, four times a year I will come here and explain the degree of execution".
He defended the fact that it is not difficult for him to understand the Catalan reality because he was president of the Xunta de Galicia for 14 years and knows "the linguistic issue, the identity feeling and the cultural one". In his opinion, a majority of Catalans feel disappointed with Pedro Sánchez, considering that he has not responded to the support received, and he believes that many cannot stand "this atmosphere of tension, of provocation, of agitation, of corruption that he is starring in".
VOX
"And I ask those disappointed socialists to give a constitutional and autonomist politician like me a chance," Feijóo has said, who says he is surprised that the leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, interprets that he is invading his political space by including profiles such as Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo or Xavier García Albiol on his lists.
After underlining that the PP "has not signed anyone from Vox", he defended the pact reached with Abascal's party to run together for the Senate, in order to promote a political change in Spain that he considers essential and legitimate from the democratic point of view.
He specified that the only sanitary cordon that the PP applies is with Bildu, but not with Vox, which he reminds is the third national political force, nor with the regional formations "that want to speak within the Constitution".
PNV AND JUNTS
As for the PNV, Feijóo believes that it has lost the room for maneuver that previously allowed it to reach agreements with the PP. About Junts, he believes that it was wrong to facilitate Sánchez's investiture and maintains that the President of the Government "has taken advantage of Junts to try to consolidate the PSC presidency in Catalonia".
"That said, I must say that with Junts we have indeed maintained a line of exchange of opinions in certain important votes in Congress. And in the end it was Junts, not the PNV, that voted in favor of Sánchez not being able to ratify certain royal decree-laws", he added.
RODALIES
Asked about the transfer of Rodalies to the Generalitat, he replied that he does not know whether it really interests the Govern, since "it is an enormous need for investment and an enormous complexity in management".
He recalled that "for me this of receiving deficient services, that was already received by Catalonia in the transfer of healthcare and from that moment the Generalitat, and I say this because I managed Insalud, began to have financial problems".
CATALAN
Regarding language policy in Catalonia, he insisted that his approach is to enforce the current regulations, recalling that "there is a reiterated ruling of a minimum of Spanish in the classrooms that speaks of 25%".
He explained that he comes from a community "where we seek a system of linguistic balance where 50% of the cases are taught in Galician and the other 50% in Spanish. And today more Galician is spoken in Galicia than Catalan in Catalonia".
FINANCING
When asked about the alleged funding deficit that Catalonia denounces, he indicated that it is necessary to review the autonomous financing model. If he reaches the Moncloa, he wants to meet with all the regional presidents to talk "about income and expenses, because otherwise, the other thing is to lie to people".
He also reiterated that, if he governs, he will repeal the Amnesty Law and the Democratic Memory Law, considering that they do not contribute to social cohesion and do "reopen wounds".