The president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has supported his candidate for the Junta de Castilla y León, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, “Less noise and more Mañuecos,” he said. The opposition leader went to Ávila this Saturday to vindicate the “management” of his leader and attack the central government of Pedro Sánchez (PSOE), whom he has accused of being surrounded by “corruption” in a Spain where “everything works worse.” His party has led the territory since 1987, a hegemony that Feijóo has advocated maintaining among the “lessons” of Vox, whom he has criticized for the breakup of the coalition in 2024, leaving the PP alone. Mañueco has reiterated his campaign lines and has promised “an outstanding performance in management.”
Feijóo because “the best for Castilla y León is the best for Spain, a victory for the PP and Mañueco is the guarantee of compliance with the Constitution.” The Galician has highlighted the “traceability and three-year periods” of Mañueco. “The governments of Spain are not Sánchez’s Government, which will pass and will be a bad memory. Castilla y León is an exception that shows the policy that Spain needs, serving the citizens,” he began.
Feijóo that the PP has been governing for so many years: “Those who lose are in the Government give us lessons in democracy.” The opposition leader has elaborated on this line despite the fact that Mañueco began by losing against the PSOE, although he governed thanks to Ciudadanos in 2019. “We are going to ask for the vote to govern. If we don’t win we go to the opposition, but if we win, why don’t they let us govern? That’s what democracy consists of. Noise may be fashionable but it doesn’t solve problems,” he added: “We have not agreed with the heirs of a terrorist group or the separation of a part of Spain to preside over the Government Council, we are in the opposition with honor and they are in the Government after losing with dishonor.”
a very conservative community, in its efforts to revalidate the Board and move away from a Vox that was already strong in 2022 and that aspires to increase its influence. Mañueco already formed a coalition with Vox in 2022. Shortly after, the schism in the PP arrived that led to the departure of Pablo Casado and the appointment of Feijóo, who did not attend Mañueco’s investiture with the votes of the ultras.
The president of the PP has condemned “a scandal every day” in Spain and has directly mentioned Pedro Sánchez “and not the woman, the brother or those who are in prison”, comparing these alleged cases of corruption to Mañueco’s family. Feijóo has accused the Executive of lying “using the elderly as hostages” for combining the increase in pensions with housing measures that have finally been divided into independent decrees: “They gave the elderly a choice between raising their pensions and not having their house squatted, the Government lied as always and the PP complied, the Government has shown that it does not have a majority to govern and that the Spanish do not deserve the agony of a finished Government.”
“Everything works worse,” he summarized, suggesting “turn the page” and focus on “how to continue better in Castilla y León, it is politics that is worth it in the face of privileges.” The former president of the Xunta de Galicia has also named the former president of the Government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero – “we will see how Zapatero ends up” – and has continued in reference to the independentists. “Do you think that a Sánchez candidate will be able to confront him over financing?” he asked, adding that the socialists embody the “worst immigration lack of control in our history” and doubting who will choose “a PSOE that has raised our taxes versus a Mañueco that has lowered them.”
a key issue in the community’s aging electorate: “This is not about territories, it is about people.” In addition, he has failed the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente from Valladolid, because “there are politicians who know more about social networks than about railway networks, you have to have courage to say that the train is experiencing the best moment in history with 47 deaths [en el accidente ferroviario de Córdoba]”.
“We will not accept lessons from those who have never governed and who left when they governed,” Feijóo said to Vox, without mentioning them, because they broke with Mañueco in 2024. “That they come to give lessons in rural areas is surprising,” he said, establishing himself as a defender of ranchers and farmers with the CAP, “that is what matters together with a Mercosur with guarantees.”
The forecasts for very tight elections have a key example in Ávila: seven attorneys are distributed and in the previous appointment the PP obtained three, with two for the PSOE and one for Vox and the local party Por Ávila. This constituency, with a markedly agrarian character, stands as one where the extreme right can gain weight by capitalizing on the rural vote.
Mañueco, who spoke before his leader, recited his proposals, literally reading the speech from previous days’ events. “If we reach agreements with other political formations we will enforce them, our word is a contract,” he stated, given the foreseeable need for pacts, with Vox as a probable ally.
“Here there will be a PP government once again, let it be clear,” he exclaimed, before defining himself as “a shy person but I am not one of those who disappears when the storm comes, I can ask for the vote with a clear conscience.” The leader has thanked his rivals for “the attention when they constantly talk about us” because in his opinion it is “logical, we are the bar they want to reach but they will never achieve it.”
The PP candidate has requested the vote “with our certainties, it is the moment of truth.” “We believe in politics, in Castilla y León and in the PP project for this land,” he noted, asking “that no one stays at home, I see a lot of desire and we have to go with all our soul and enthusiasm.” “What do you want for your future, empty promises or concrete results? The answer is in the ballot boxes, certainty versus uncertainty, a project versus emptiness and versus noise, nuts!”, he closed.
