Feijóo wants to run Spain like a CEO. Not easy with far-right Vox on the board.

Résumé détaillé

The center-right People’s Party is casting itself as a business-like national manager, but a partnership with Vox threatens to push the PP in a more radical direction.

MADRID — Trust us. We are sober, sensible — even slightly dull — managers.

It’s not the world’s catchiest election slogan, but it’s the core message that Spain’s center-right People’s Party is banking on to propel it into government on Nov. 29. Reinforcing the idea that the PP wants to run the EU’s fourth-biggest economy like a competent, unflashy corporation, one senior party official, granted anonymity to speak freely, said the PP was “offering a CEO to lead the country.”

Amid profound frustration with corruption scandals under the Socialist government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, it’s a message with traction, and polls suggest the PP will form the next government.

But it also presents the party with an identity crisis if — as expected — it needs to team up with far-right populists from Vox to build a majority. If the next government is a business, Vox will be a maverick on the board.

The devastating Toledo rail crash that killed 69 people on Oct. 28 offered the PP an opportunity to shift the campaign onto territory where it feels comfortable, as party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo and his close circle doubled down on their strategy to present themselves as steady-handed executives.

Feijóo’s first move after the accident was to chair a closed-door gathering of 15 railway experts to project an image of a jefe interested in technicalities.

A second party official explained to Madrid Playbook that the party’s new mantra was: “Management, management, management.” When Sánchez called the snap election in early October, the PP rolled out posters that read “FINALLY.” In the days following the rail accident, the party added “management” to that original slogan. “Finally, management.”

While that low-drama C-suite approach may appeal to the PP, the obvious political challenge is that Vox — which is eyeing key ministries in the next administration — is running a very different type of campaign. Vox relishes political drama.

It was the only party to push on with campaign rallies…

Début de l'article, extrait de Politico Europe. Pour lire la suite, ouvrez l'article chez le média.