Alfonso Rueda has been the last one chosen by the PP to defend the great legacy of Manuel Fraga.
The founder of the party created in Galicia, his homeland, a robust political apparatus that until now has been able to bring together the vast majority of voters on the right and center-right.
The Galician PP has governed the Xunta 36 of the 42 years of autonomy.
Faced with the turbulent but staggered succession led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who had to compete with other rivals and spent four years in the opposition forging his first candidacy, Rueda inherited that leadership from one day to the next.
Married and father of two daughters, he has been linked to the PP since he was young and his dedication to politics comes from his father.
José Antonio Rueda Redondo was vice president of the Pontevedra Provincial Council when Mariano Rajoy presided, but not for the Popular Alliance but for the Galician Coalition, a Galician center formation.
At that time, the Galician right was fragmented and that coalition ended in a rupture.
The former president of the Government, however, maintains a close relationship with the son of his number two in the eighties and has been deeply involved in his campaign.
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By placing chairs at rallies, Rueda became president of New Generations in Pontevedra.
After graduating in Law from the University of Santiago, being a banking salesperson and taking the exam, he served in several town councils as a local official and then as municipal secretary, currently in special services and with a position in the Marín City Council (Pontevedra).
He became Feijóo's right-hand man in 2006, but before that he had been director of Local Administration of Fraga between 2000 and 2005. He directed the criticized campaign that in 2009 elevated his mentor to president of the Xunta for the first time. .
When asked if he imagined he would end up being Feijóo's successor, Rueda always tells the same anecdote.
In 2009, just after overthrowing the left-wing coalition that had governed Galicia for less than four years, he was already asked in an interview for his opinion on the “growing rumors” that the president-elect would leave for Madrid immediately.
That rumor about Feijóo's political ambitions remained alive until March 2, 2022, when he announced his departure after the fall of Pablo Casado.
In those 13 years, while he flirted with the idea of taking the leap to Génova Street and then sleeping in La Moncloa, the current national president of the PP did not make a single move to organize his succession.
Given his hyper-leadership, no other politician in the party managed to make a name for himself.
Rueda's knowledge of the workings of the Administration gave him points to suddenly receive the Feijóo scepter.
He was not the only one who wanted it: Diego Calvo, provincial president of the PP in A Coruña, asked for primaries, but a fight was finally avoided, giving him the vice-presidency of the Xunta.
Having just landed in the capital of Spain, the new leader of the popular party did not like the noise.
Rueda has only had two years to build himself as a leader and candidate.
Despite having spent 15 years at Feijóo's side as general secretary of the party and vice president of the Xunta, he inherited his positions with little knowledge among the population.
He went from the shadows to the spotlight almost overnight.
And although he governed with a large absolute majority and no internal counterweight, he decided to advance the regional elections by five months and further shorten the limited time he had available to forge his electoral poster.
The date chosen, in the middle of the debate on the amnesty law, was very juicy for Feijóo in need of victories after the trauma of 23-J.
His work at the head of the Xunta has been characterized by continuity both in the composition of the Government and in Feijóo's policies, which he has combined with a great public exhibition to make himself known.
Also, since the months before the elections, he has approved countless public aid, among them to pay caregivers of dependent people, sports equipment for children or devices to tune in to DTT.
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