Starting this Tuesday, Feijóo will undergo his first investiture debate to be president of the Government. The popular leader, unaccustomed to failure, has already assumed that La Moncloa will have to wait despite the fact that the polls prior to 23-J predicted a clear majority with Vox. Only those from Abascal, UPN and Canarian Coalition will support his candidacy in the Congress of Deputies with a total of 172 votes, four below what is necessary.
The four absolute majorities that Feijóo chained in Galicia while he carved out his profile as a “moderate” and “good manager” are far away. He alludes to this enviable result every time someone questions his leadership, but all that glitters is not gold.
The Galician sociologist and essayist Manuel Monge has published in recent weeks a book titled, “Feijóo: Biografia (non-authorized) dun farsante”, (Laiovento, 2023), with which he aims to dismantle some of the myths and supposed achievements that have propelled the career of the PP leader.
The legacy he left after 13 years in the poverty situation.
In the same pages, he also exposes his desire for privatization, the dangerous friendships he maintained (such as that of the drug trafficker Marcial Dorado), the attack on the Galician language or his mismanagement during the coronavirus pandemic. A journalistic exhibition that, in the author’s own words, has “little literature” because it seeks to “dismantle the discourse of the right and the extreme right so that they do not govern either in Galicia or in the State, that is clear.”
In his interview with HuffPostthe former BNG councilor in A Coruña, also admits that he had no qualms about calling faker Feijóo in the title of the book and that the “latest events” – such as his criticism of the dialogue with the independentists or the amnesty law – continue to prove him even more right.
Manuel Monge, author of the book “Feijóo. Biografía dun farsante”
– What Feijóo do you expect to see in next week’s investiture debate?
– Feijóo already considers lost that he is going to be invested and is going to take advantage of the appearance to deteriorate Sánchez and throw shit at him. He is not going to give a presidential speech, but rather an opposition one. He will talk about the amnesty, Bildu… The classic topics to attack him. And he will also allude to the current dissidents of the PSOE, using verbatim quotes of things that Felipe González or Alfonso Guerra have said in recent weeks.
– Is the PP being coherent in criticizing Sánchez’s negotiation with the pro-independence parties?
– Absolutely. If you review the entire process regarding the disappearance of ETA you discover that Aznar said that he was going to be generous in the event that the terrorists laid down their arms. And within that generosity entered dialogue and negotiation. For this reason, he sent emissaries to Switzerland to meet with the band. Among those negotiators, for example, was Pedro Arriola. PP deputy Ignacio Gil Lázaro, now in Vox, even publicly praised Aznar’s negotiation with ETA because, according to him, it was the only way to achieve peace. And now both PP and Vox defend against dialogue. It is an ongoing farce. Rajoy himself said in 2017 that he was willing to do anything to stop the processesand even offered Puigdemont an amnesty. They have no word or credibility.
– With Junts, the PP has spoken for its investiture. The red line has been Bildu…
– Borja Sémper has said on more than one occasion that ETA does not exist, that Bildu is not ETA and that it is a legal party. In addition, the PP has approved more than 140 initiatives in the Basque Parliament through Bildu. Just two months ago, an issue was debated at Bildu’s proposal regarding green energy and the PP representative thanked them for accepting her amendments and ended up voting in favor of this law. But even Maroto, when he was mayor of Vitoria, boasted that his legs didn’t shake when he drank wine with Bildu leaders! And not only that. He also asked that his example spread among the ranks of the PP.
– The latest controversy between the Government and PP has come over the use of co-official languages in the Congress of Deputies. How can we understand that Feijóo has voted against the use of Galician?
– What has happened in Congress is clear proof of how Feijóo understands the Galician language. As I tell in my book, the Galician has suffered a significant regression during the 13 years that he has presided over the Xunta. The Budget allocation for language promotion went from 21.5 million in 2009 to 6.7 in 2015 and his government broke the linguistic consensus by reducing the subjects taught in Galician in schools from 50% to 33%. All of Feijóo’s policies against the language have been denounced and the Royal Galician Academy itself has raised its voice for these attacks. How is it possible that a party that governs in Galicia is against the use of Galician in Congress?
– In the last 23-J campaign, Feijóo was criticized a lot for telling some lies, both in the face to face with Sánchez and in some interviews he gave. He says they are inaccuracies, but you assure that lying is part of his strategy.
– They are perfectly programmed lies. The 2009 electoral campaign that ended up supporting the Xunta was tremendous, because he even said that Touriño and Quintana were buying Audis as official cars. Later, we found out that 19 of those 23 cars had already been purchased by Fraga. They also said that Quintana had a luxurious 6,000 euro minibar inside his official car and the vice president had to open the trunk in front of journalists to show that he only had a beach cooler. Not to mention the continued lies or manipulation he perpetrates on many issues. Now, for example, he criticizes Sánchez for the increase in debt in Spain when he has tripled that of Galicia in twelve years.
– You also accuse him of being lax with corruption and of keeping Pablo Crespo within your structure when he was already associated with Gürtel.
– That is a very palpable example that Feijóo not only knew about the illegal financing of the PP, but also protected those responsible. Crespo was something like the representative of Gürtel in Galicia. In 1999, he was removed from his position as organizational secretary of the PP due to suspicions about him. But, of course, a bargain had to be found for him and Feijóo, who later became Minister of Territorial Policy, kept him on the board of directors of Portos de Galicia. There he spent several years earning a fixed salary.
– A dangerous relationship, although his friendship with Marcial Dorado has caused him more headaches. The drug trafficker said a few days ago that they offered him a lot of money “to tarnish Feijóo’s image.” Why doesn’t he speak?
-He cannot give details of the business he had with the Xunta because that would go against him. In these years, he has only said publicly that his friendship with Feijóo lasted longer than the president of the PP admits. Maybe with his silence he is favoring Feijóo, but he is also hiding his own business.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo, on August 30
– Let’s talk about the Galicia that Feijóo left behind after his departure to Madrid. What situation was the CC.AA. in?
– The data are worrying. We have the lowest pensions in the State and 20% of salaried people do not reach a thousand euros. One in three children are at risk of poverty and in terms of equality and social assistance we also occupy the last positions. In the ratio of nursing homes per number of elderly people, Galicia is at the bottom of the State with the exception of Murcia and is the last one with the lowest percentage of public places out of the total. That is, on the issue of nursing homes, the PP also prioritizes business and favors the private sector. Of course, 94% of those who died in residences during the first months of the pandemic were in private centers.
– You say in the book that the hobby Feijóo’s favorite is to privatize. What do you think would happen to the pensions if he were to govern in Spain?
– There is no question. Feijóo will do the same thing that he has done until now: eliminate the taxes that levy the highest incomes and those that affect the results of energy companies and big banks. The PP is the party of capital. There will be many workers who think that the PP is maneuvering for their well-being, but they are misinformed. There they continue to advance in the privatization of health or education, eliminating public places and reducing teaching staff, but at the same time increasing subsidies to charter and private schools. And with pensions they will do the same.
– Do you think Feijóo is on a tightrope as president of the PP after 23-J? Should you fear for Ayuso?
– The expectations surrounding Feijóo have not been met internally and there are sectors within the party that consider it necessary to carry out a different policy. The pressure that Aznar or Ayuso are already exerting on him explains his ups and downs and changes in decision in recent weeks. Honestly, I don’t think he will last two years like this if there is no repeat election. The pressures from that harder wing are going to increase.
-And what can happen in the 2024 Galician elections? Is there a possibility that the PP will lose the government?
– Alfonso Rueda is not Feijóo, he does not have his charisma. His credentials are that he is a very right-wing person and that he had a very important role in the creation of hoaxes and propaganda that led Feijóo to the presidency of the Xunta in 2009. In addition, he is a person very marked as ‘anti-Galician’ and He is seen as a second-rate president, a substitute. A recent survey in ‘La Voz de Galicia’ already predicted that he has it tough and I believe that an alternative government could be created around Ana Pontón (BNG).
