When Alberto Núñez Feijóo left his golden throne in Galicia a year ago to take charge of the Spanish right, there were those who, naively, thought there was room to implement a party with a centrist profile in Spain, comparable to those of other countries of the EU, such as the CDU of former German chancellor Merkel or Renaissance (RE) of French president Emmanuel Macron. It was immediately seen that this was a utopia and that the Popular Party - either by its own will or because the organization is held hostage and its strategy cannibalized by the extremist ambience in Madrid - is unable to be a centrist party and that its only competition is with Vox, and it is thus required to ensure that the ultra-right does not steal significant sections of its electorate.
Thus, in an act of cannibalism, the PP devoured the naive Pablo Casado, who wanted to take on Isabel Díaz Ayuso, forgetting that she had everything he lacked: money and sufficient power to eat him for breakfast in just a few sittings. Those loyal to Casado came running at an unheard of speed, even for those who had already seen everything the PP has to offer, and the barons seduced Feijóo so that this time he would agree to take over the party. He would leave behind his comfortable absolute majorities in Galicia, abandon the pleasant life of Santiago, and accept the task of bringing the party back to the Moncloa government palace that they had lost in that motion of no confidence in Mariano Rajoy, in June 2018.
Feijóo has explained in private conversations something that Rajoy had said himself when, at the time he was in power, he was criticized for not focusing more on the party: in Madrid, the centre does not exist and the covers of El Mundo, ABC and La Razón and the radio programmes of Federico Jiménez Losantos, Carlos Herrera and Carlos Alsina compete to influence the PP agenda. And in this approach, there is always one fixed idea, which is none other than that which says the right can be mobilized by going against Catalonia. Now, with the independence movement, this is even more so than in previous years, when the catalyst for all this aggression was José María Aznar, the only president whom the media and business right has feared and on whom they did not impose their agenda, partly because he was one of their own.
Feijóo will win or lose the next Spanish elections, it is still too early to be sure, although the wind seems to be blowing in his favour now. But in no case is the PP on the way to becoming the CDU or RE, since its positions are closer to formations that are much further to the right. The clearest example is how the party enjoys trampling on fundamental rights that affect freedoms, whether of assembly or opinion. It is impossible to separate the PP from the discourse of the unity of Spain and make it enter social, economic or environmental debates, to mention three issues. Probably, in these twelve months, the only centrist political position the party has had is its commitment not to touch the abortion law defined by terms after the Constitutional Court had rejected an appeal presented by the PP more than twelve years ago. Even this position, that "abortion is a woman's right under the law and I will not change my mind", has been challenged by the more conservative sector of the party.
His policy of 'no' to everything and the impossibility of pacts with the PSOE bring him closer to Aznar's PP. But his medicocrity brings him closer to that of Rajoy. Wth regard to his territorial vision, he could be from the PP or the PSOE, since the Socialists Pagé and Lambán follow his moves closely. In short, the right has lost an opportunity to be a modern party and has preferred to retreat back several decades to the point of being mistaken for the old Alianza Popular of the 1970s, so full of bitterness and adopting positions able to be classified, in many cases, as pre-democratic.