Feijóo Opens PP Campaign in Badalona, Promises a Spending Audit
PP candidate Alberto Núñez Feijóo began the Nov. 29 election campaign in Badalona, promising an audit of public money and an anti-squatting law.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the Partido Popular (PP, Spain’s main centre-right party) candidate for prime minister, opened his campaign for the Nov. 29 general election in Badalona, a city next to Barcelona. Speaking to about 3.500 people, according to the party, he promised an audit of how public money was spent under the governments of Pedro Sánchez, which he described as years of “plunder” and decline, ABC reported.
The choice of Catalonia for the first rally was deliberate. The PP also opened the final stretch of the 2023 campaign in the region, ABC noted, and Feijóo said he wants a Catalonia that takes part in the change, not one that watches it from the sidelines.
What Feijóo promised
Feijóo said a PP government would investigate where the money has gone that should have paid for trains, schooling, housing and better public services. He listed taxes collected at record levels, a large public debt and European recovery funds that, in his view, citizens have not seen turn into improvements. He pledged that the findings would be made public.
The campaign slogan is “el cambio necesario” (the necessary change). ABC points out that it resembles the slogan the PSOE of Felipe González used in 1982, when the Socialists won their first absolute majority. Feijóo framed the vote as a choice between continuing as now and a new start, and promised a team he called prepared, honest and professional.
He also called the general strike held on Wednesday a failure and said Spaniards would go and vote on Nov. 29. His list of what the election is about included feeling safer coming home, getting to the end of the month with money left and being free to decide one’s own life.
The Catalan message from Albiol
Xavier García Albiol, mayor of Badalona and the PP’s lead candidate for Barcelona, spoke before Feijóo. He concentrated on two topics: squatting and illegal immigration. He said the party’s anti-squatting law, which Feijóo commissioned, would let owners recover occupied homes within 48 hours.
Albiol also asked Sánchez to stop the distribution of migrants from the Canary Islands to Catalonia. He argued that the PP’s Catalan list is open to left-wing voters and to supporters of independence who share those priorities, saying he does not want to change anyone’s ideology.
Alejandro Fernández, president of the PP in Catalonia, introduced the rally. He said that with Albiol leading the anti-squatting project, “fear is going to change sides.”
Why it matters for residents
The campaign runs for 14 days. Housing, immigration and public services, the subjects Feijóo and Albiol put first, are also the issues that most directly shape life for renters, buyers and newcomers in Barcelona. Anything about the cost of living or the legal position of foreigners will depend on what the next government actually passes, and ABC’s report contains only campaign promises.
The PP’s route to power is arithmetic. According to ABC, the PP, together with Vox, would need to pass 176 seats in the Congress to form a government. Feijóo said that if that happens he would govern “without walls” as president of all Spaniards.
Feijóo told the rally the country cannot stand four more years of the same, and said the change cannot wait. He described his offer as a government that does not steal and tells the truth, and said he would start a new period of cordiality, work and collaboration.
What to watch next
The election is on Nov. 29, and the campaign has 14 days to run. Feijóo has said he would form his team from December if the PP wins.
Source: ABC
