Feijóo inflames his speech to save the Galician match ball

It was an easy day, one of those where you just shoot for a goal.

The Government had become entangled in the labyrinth of the amnesty, arguing that it is possible to differentiate between a type of terrorism that is amnestiable and another that is not, due to the amendment agreed with Junts to shield the application of the grace measure to former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and the general secretary of ERC, Marta Rovira, who are accused of terrorism.

But early in the afternoon, on Tuesday in Barcelona, ​​the Institutional Deputy Secretary of the PP, Esteban González Pons, a figure most trusted by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, launched a high-voltage political statement that represented the total delegitimization of one of the maxims. State institutions.

“The cancer of the rule of law in Spain,” Pons said, “is called the Constitutional Court, chaired by Cándido Conde-Pumpido.”

The leader of the PP suggested that the progressive magistrates of the court of guarantees are prevaricating because, he stated, they act “with voting discipline” under the orders of a president “in political connection with the Government,” and warned that the party was considering stopping present unconstitutionality appeals, including amnesty.

After having criticized the Government for questioning the judges, the PP stumbled over the same stone.

Pons was forced to rectify and no one scored the goal, despite the fact that the day had dawned pointing to a guaranteed victory.

The Deputy Secretary of Institutional Affairs of the PP, Esteban González Pons, at an event in Barcelona on January 23.

DAVID ZORRAKINO - EUROPA PRESS (Europa Press)

In the statement that the PP released on behalf of González Pons to fix the skid, the party added an important message.

The PP, the text stressed, considers that "one of its main functions, even more so in this legislature, is to preserve maximum respect for the institutions."

That is, Feijóo revealed that he is worried about being accused of delegitimizing State institutions, a line of separation that until now the Popular Party had maintained with Vox.

However, Feijóo himself has decided to blur it.

The key to this change, they interpret in the PP, is that it needs to overcome the

match ball

(match point) that the Galician elections represent for it.

More information

The Government assures that it will not make any more changes to the amnesty despite pro-independence pressure

“Pons's comment was a very unfortunate comment because we are focusing the speech on questioning the accusations of

lawfare

to the judges by the Government and its partners,” laments a member of Feijóo's hard core.

However, the melody of delegitimization of institutions fits perfectly with other statements by the PP leader in recent weeks.

This January, Feijóo has defended that “national sovereignty no longer resides in the Cortes,” even recognizing that saying that “means detracting from the legitimacy of Congress.”

Furthermore, he has compared the Lower House with the Parliament at the time of the

process

, and has ended up questioning whether the Constitution is in force in Spain.

“A country where citizens are not equal before the law does not matter what Constitution it has.

It does not have a Constitution”, he has come to say about the Spanish situation.

Feijóo has inflamed the PP's discourse, helped by its main squires, such as Pons (although in the end he rectified), and above all by its parliamentary spokesman, Miguel Tellado.

Last week, Tellado placed the Sánchez Government outside of democracy.

An Executive “that shelters terrorists, and at the same time attacks judges, has no place in a modern democracy,” he said.

PP deputy Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo and her training partner Miguel Tellado, in a meeting in Congress on January 24.

JPGANDUL (EFE)

The first effect of the hyperbole strategy is to leave Vox without political space.

The ultra party has been forced to contort arguments to justify that it was opposed to the suppression of the term “disabled” from the Constitution – a reform that has gathered the support of the entire parliamentary arc – because it needed to differentiate itself from the PP.

In addition to the exalted speech, Feijóo has also prevailed over the ultras in the street agitation.

After months of demonstrations against the amnesty, the popular ones returned to the streets this Sunday with a rally in the Plaza de España in Madrid, with massive attendance (45,000 people, according to the Government Delegation).

The party had chartered free buses from all over Spain due to fears among the leadership that “the amnesty does not have the strength it had a few months ago,” some internal sources admit.

The strategy is in the manual of any electoral campaign.

On the one hand, the party defends that the leader of the PP toughens his speech due to the controversial negotiation of the Government with the independentists, in addition to the "political inertia, in which saying something sensible is very difficult", and due to the pressure of the right.

“The related media ask us for more wood, and the Government does not stop provoking,” says a leader.

“In the PP everyone is in favor of toughening the discourse.

“We cannot believe what is happening,” defends another member of the leader's hard core.

But the underlying issue, different sources also admit, are the Galician elections on February 18.

The PP needs to raise environmental tension to activate its electorate because all the polls predict that it will win.

Too much calm works against it and, in addition, the PP needs to increase participation in Galicia — it did not reach 50% in 2020 — and it has to reduce the Vox vote as much as possible.

“We have to get them below that 3% which, although it is not enough for them to get representation, can be a decisive bite for Alfonso Rueda [the PP candidate],” warns an autonomous president of the PP.

“Everything that is happening is through Galicia.

Everything,” this baron summarizes the latest movements of the PP leader.

“Feijóo is risking it in these elections.

“After the general fiasco, this is his

match ball

,” he analyzes.

“He knows that if we win, Alfonso Rueda will have won;

but if we lose, he will have lost.

"I can't even imagine what scenario would open up if we lose Galicia."

Pellet

crisis

Nobody in the PP expects, today, a defeat in Galicia - the most widespread bet is that there is an 80% probability of retaining the absolute majority, even if it means losing several seats - but the environmental catastrophe of the

pellets

put the party on alert.

“This crisis is the best thing that could have happened to us, because in Galicia they have become scared and have truly dedicated themselves to working to win the elections,” says a PP president.

The first, Feijóo, who has nationalized the campaign with the new street protest against Pedro Sánchez and a tour of the party throughout the country, which the PP will launch in the coming weeks, against the agreements with the independentists.

“Feijóo is also looking to get the Galician victory medal,” says this regional president.

The leader needs a victory in his land to overcome the bitter pill, from which he is still recovering, of not having been able to govern the country, as he expected.

“The opposition is very tough,” is heard as a lament in the PP.

“The problem for Feijóo is that if we lose, a major crisis would open;

but if we keep power, in reality we will stay the same,” summarizes another leader about the scenario faced by the popular leader, who is obliged to win in Galicia.

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