For the last Sunday of the campaign, Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s team organized an event to taste some tapas with militants in Tordesillas (Valladolid). “What a nice place Los Toreros!”, proclaimed the leader of the PP upon entering the restaurant with that name, where about 200 people could fit in the restaurant’s dance hall. There, Feijóo took selfies and gave hugs to those gathered, before getting behind the microphone to send a few messages to Vox. “When they saw the government bull, they were scared,” summed up the leader of the popular party in the cradle of the Toro de la Vega celebration, which for a decade can no longer be speared.
Castilla y León was the first community where the ultras entered an autonomous executive, in 2022, when they gave the presidency to the popular baron Alfonso Fernández Mañeco. They left the autonomous government in the summer of 2024, in a coordinated action with the other four territories shared with the PP and with the excuse of hosting migrant minors. Vox now has the possibility of entering the Executives of Extremadura and Aragón —after achieving more deputies in the last elections than in 2023—. But the far-right party is reluctant to close an agreement before the polls next Sunday. They will be the third elections of this intense carousel, and they will be held when four years have passed since Santiago Abascal’s party shook hands with Mañueco.
“This week, our objective is to tell the citizens of Castilla y León not to stay at home, that if they want a Government of the Popular Party, they should vote for the Popular Party, the rest is blocking,” Feijóo asked in Tordesillas, appealing to the useful vote against the PSOE. “Here is a party that has been fighting for decades and decades for every corner, that knows what rural means,” he added before municipal and regional officials – without Mañueco –, remembering the four decades of interrupted government of the PP in the community and drawing on that management experience against Vox, its main adversary at the polls. And whom he did not expressly mention this Sunday, although he has dedicated a good part of his intervention, fueling the public struggle between both formations, tougher since Friday’s failed session in Extremadura.
“There are parties that present themselves to not let the government govern and, to whoever wins, put all the difficulties in making decisions,” added the leader of the PP, three days after Vox overthrew María Guardiola’s investiture for the second time, a milestone that Génova will use in the final stretch of the campaign to continue confronting the ultras, since part of the PP considers that it can penalize Abascal’s men by hindering victories against the socialists. “Governing is knowing that there are problems and looking for priorities. And taking the best alternatives to solve those problems. Another thing is to comment; another thing is to tell others everything they have to do, even if you don’t do anything; another thing is to give lessons to everyone, even though you haven’t solved any problem in your life,” he stated.
One of the main fears of the PP before the polls on March 15 is that, as already happened in 2022, on this occasion the regional elections do not coincide with the municipal elections. A factor of special relevance in a land with a very important network of mayors and popular councilors. “Let’s not give rise to scares. Let’s go for a great result for a great land,” he implored.
“We are all against war”
Another of the problems of the PP is the unexpected framework that has crept into the campaign: the war in Iran. Thus, apart from Vox, Feijóo has reserved another part of his speech in Tordesillas to also dedicate attacks against President Pedro Sánchez for the Government’s position regarding the conflict and against the US president, Donald Trump. “We are all against war and in favor of peace,” said the leader of the PP in Tordesillas and after having modulated his own position during the week. “But Sánchez is lying to us,” he stated about the sending of the frigate Christopher Columbus to Cyprus. “They come to Castilla y León to say No to war”, he added regarding Sánchez’s rallies. “Who is against no to war? “What we are against is that he makes fun of us!” he snapped. “We don’t pay Sánchez to appear to fight with the allies and finance his tantrums. We pay Sánchez to serve the Spanish people and defend our interests,” he stressed.
This Sunday’s rally coincided with International Women’s Day, an anniversary that was present in his speech. “Today it is time to vindicate the role of women,” said Feijóo. “I am very proud of the role of the Popular Party in respecting women,” he boasted. “We have the worst central government in democracy in terms of respect for women,” he stated while pointing to the “saunas” of Sánchez’s deceased father-in-law, the connection of the former socialist leader José Luis Ábalos with prostitutes and the accusations against Paco Salazar.
In seven of the nine provinces of Castilla y León, the PP lists are headed by women. And the two parliamentary spokespersons (Ester Muñoz, in Congress; and Alicia Garcia, in the Senate) are also women and coincidentally from that community. Circumstances that he has praised. “In the Popular Party there are no quotas, in the Popular Party there are intelligent women, there are talented women,” he considered.
“There are many parties that ask for the vote for the circus, we ask for the vote for bread. And we know that Castilla y León likes bread and is not interested in the circus,” Feijóo stressed at another time.
