Alberto Nunez Feijo: Mild moderate who wants to be Prime Minister of Spain

Madrid – Right-wing People’s Party wins Alberto Nunez Feijo Spain’s dissolution general election But he has failed to find support to form a government and has built a reputation as a moderate, but has struggled to forge alliances with the far right.

The 61-year-old from rural Galicia in the northwest hoped his moderate stance and insensitive but credible brand would win over voters in Spain’s snap elections.

And nearly all of the polls agreed, while indicating that Mr. Feijou’s right-wing party would undoubtedly need the backing of the far-right Boxes to come to power.

So Feijou turned to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, promising him to hold the helm while launching a campaign focused on “overthrowing Santismo,” which would upend many of the socialist leaders’ policies.

Sanchez, by contrast, has staked everything on warning about the dangers of the PP-Vox regime.

And while the strategy seemed to work, Feijou’s PP won, but fell far short of expectations and failed to form a majority even with Vox’s backing.

bitter pills

For a politician who spent his entire political career in Galicia until 2022 and was elected regional leader for the first time with an absolute majority in 2009, it was a bitter pill – he will repeat the feat three more times.

When he took over as party leader in April 2022, he was hailed as a down-to-earth moderate and a safe assistant to lead the party as it emerges from one of the worst internal crises in its history.

“Feijo is very predictable, flaunts transparency and likes to present himself as a credible politician,” said Fran Balad, a Galician journalist and author of the book “Feijo’s Journey” (2021).

“He is a moderate because he is a realist who has succeeded in attracting progressive voters and is trusted by people,” he told AFP.

In the weeks leading up to the vote, questions resurfaced about his relationship with notorious tobacco smuggler Marcial Dorado, who was later convicted of drug trafficking after being involved in a massive money laundering operation.

The issue first surfaced in 2013, after El Pais published photos of Mr. Dorado on a boat and during his vacations in Ibiza and the Canary Islands in the mid-90s, when Feijou headed Galicia’s health service.

At the time, Ms. Feijou said she “knew nothing about[Dorado’s]activities” and claimed they had no “close friendship”.

But Yolanda Diaz, also from Galicia and leader of the radical left-wing Semar party, challenged her innocence just before the vote, saying: “Tell me what you were doing with Martial Dorado when all of Spain knew who he was.”