Feijóo closes the EPP congress and predicts change for Spain.
Spain needs a change that is increasingly imminent. This was the determined conclusion reached by Alberto Núñez Feijóo yesterday in Valencia, where the PP leader gave the closing speech at the European People's Party (EPP) congress.
Surrounded by the top brass of European conservatives, with the presidents of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, at the helm, and with the leader of the EPP, Manfred Weber, setting the strategic line, in which from now on he will have as his deputy the faithful Dolors Montserrat – "this Spaniard who will bring the Catalan soul to the center of Europe" –, Feijóo had an intervention at both national and European levels.
Aware that Spain is the last bastion of social democracy among the major countries of the European Union, where the majority of prime ministers belong to the EPP, the leader of the opposition to Pedro Sánchez's government promised, this time, to establish himself as the alternative that "more and more Spaniards are demanding." After the frustration of 2023, next time will be the charm: "And the change will be real, because we will build it from responsibility, honesty, and truth," he proclaimed.
Read also Feijóo tells the EPP conclave that "Spain needs change and it's coming." Salvador Enguix
Observed by former President José María Aznar, whose attendance at the event was not planned and whom he praised for exercising his freedom “with absolute forcefulness,” Feijóo asserted that the Spanish Popular Party will follow the same path as the EPP—which Weber has set toward centrality, away from extremism and the “authoritarian wave”—as the leading European party: “The future awaits us, and problems and challenges are not avoided, they are faced,” he encouraged in the face of these “difficult times.”
Establishing the humanist and Christian values of his political family as principles, which he extended to all of Europe, the PP leader proposed defending borders and regulating migration flows, but "with humanity and respect," in clear conflict with the radical approaches of the far right, which proposes mass deportations in the image and likeness of the program that brought Donald Trump back to the White House. Not surprisingly, the Spanish People's Party (PP) is reaching out to the Latin American community, which will have growing electoral weight in Spain and whose traditionalism and Catholic faith could bring them a significant source of votes.
The PP shows off its Europeanism and distances itself from the far right on immigration.But, despite this implicit assumption of multiculturalism, the Spanish nation, "one of the oldest on Earth," does not have to "dilute" itself in Europe, which, in turn, does not have to cede its identity to the United States or China, but rather "reclaim itself as a global power," said Feijóo, showing his Europeanism and at a time when the PP is trying to maintain balance in the midst of a tariff war and not break the transatlantic link, which it sees threatened by Sánchez's recent trip to Beijing.
After joking with Weber about the good performance of the Spanish national football team, which, he ironically, the German national team cannot compete with, the PP president predicted a Spanish-German alliance that will benefit all of Europe. If the Christian Democrat Friedrich Merz is about to take his seat in the Berlin chancellery, another of the protagonists of the PP conclave in Valencia, Feijóo, as the German did with the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, is also preparing to oust Sánchez from the Moncloa as soon as possible.
"We will build a stronger and better Europe from Spain as well," he pledged to his European partners, among whom, in addition to Merz, he mentioned Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk; Greek Prime Minister Kiriakos Mitsotakis; and Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro. Along with Italian Prime Minister Antonio Tajani, Vice President of the far-right Giorgia Meloni's government, Feijóo is among the "great leaders" of the EPP that he hopes to join.
Read also The opposition leader promises 12 billion euros to "reset" the Valencian economy.“Spain needs a change, everyone knows it. Even those who voted for the Socialist Party know it,” exclaimed the opposition leader. Unlike what happened in July 2023, when the PP won at the polls but failed to form the parliamentary majority that was actually organized around Sánchez, and which has already crumbled halfway through the term, this time he sees the time to put the country “looking toward the future.”
"We're counting on all of you to make this happen," Feijóo told his European colleagues, to whom, six months after the devastating floods that caused more than two hundred deaths and left the PP almost powerless due to the negligent management of the Valencian president, Carlos Mazón, he expressed his "personal commitment" to invest 12 billion euros to "reset" the economy and renew infrastructure.
"I am convinced that we will invest the amount that the Spanish government is denying, and I will work to use all the European funds at our disposal, because it is only fair," declared the PP leader after briefly greeting Mazón, who abandoned the Valencia Fair race and did not pose for the commemorative photo.
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