Last Sunday Galicia held the most atypical election in its history. For the first time, Galicians went to vote in the midst of a pandemic and with unprecedented security measures. This is why the turnout was one of the lowest in the history of the autonomous community, with abstention rising by around 5 points and a turnout of 58.84% of voters. We have to go back to the mid-1980s to find a similar record.
In Galicia, stability and moderation have won. In the midst of the health crisis, Galicians did not want change. Thus, the election day of 12 July can be summed up in the continuity of Feijóo at the head of the Xunta, the rise of Galician nationalism and the disappearance in the Galician Parliament of the Mareas, the Galician brand of Unidas Podemos (United We Can). This means that the autonomous hemicycle will return to the three-party system that characterised Galician parliamentary politics for decades, something unheard of in today's politics.
Neither the coronavirus nor the abstention could snatch the absolute majority from the Partido Popular de Galicia. Feijóo, not only won the elections, but also achieved his best result, obtaining his fourth absolute majority, which could be described as historic and an electoral feat. in these times in which citizens are accustomed to a multi-party political system with highly fragmented parliaments and governments formed after political pacts, sometimes impossible, between the different formations.
The president of the Galician People's Party stood in these elections in a scenario of "everyone against Feijóo's absolute majority". On the one hand, the six political formations with which he came face to face in a seven-way debate, from which Nuñez Feijóo emerged victorious by prioritising the value of his administration rather than talking about new proposals for the future. On the other hand, Feijóo's other great enemy in this campaign were the polls that gave him a clear winner with a comfortable absolute majority; the Popular Party knew this and that is why they used the last stage of the campaign to ask voters not to take anything for granted, not to trust and to turn out to vote.
The Galician PP and Feijóo designed and carried out their own campaign, an atypical campaign, marked from start to finish by the coronavirus, in which Feijóo, as on previous occasions, travelled to every corner of Galicia and held the same rallies and meetings that had brought him electoral triumph in previous elections. The Popular Party carried out a positive campaign, avoiding talking about and disqualifying their political adversaries; claiming experience, management and stability. He presented himself to the voters as a solid politician, who "has never promised impossible things", backed by his achievements and a job well done, and with a clear project for the future of Galicia, as opposed to "political experiments" and a multi-government of uncertainty after the electoral pacts.
Núñez Feijóo is a self-made politician, with a fast and brilliant career, based on hard work and effort. He arrived in Galicia under the leadership of President Fraga in 2003 as Minister of Territorial Policy, Public Works and Transport, and in just one year Fraga appointed him vice-president. After the loss of the absolute majority in the 2005 elections, Feijóo was elected president of the Partido Popular of Galicia in an exemplary congress, with which he achieved not only the presidency of the party, relieving a figure like Manuel Fraga, but also, and most importantly, he managed to unite and strengthen a party somewhat divided after the loss of the elections and the departure of Fraga to the Senate.
Feijóo achieved this presidency through hard work and without any infrastructure.. He travelled for months in his own car to each and every town and corner of Galicia to meet the mayors, local presidents, members and supporters who were the driving force of the PPdeG at that time. He presented himself to them as a hard-working Galician, a man of the people, and appealed to his humble origins to counter the criticism of his opponents who branded him an opportunist and a newcomer to Galician politics from Madrid. And so, from town to town, he managed to convince everyone of his worth and of his great project for the Partido Popular de Galicia, a project of modernisation continuing Fraga's legacy and achieving, with a moderate and Galician discourse, the great Galician centre party that it is today. As a good politician, Feijóo knew that without a party there would never be a government.
And then came the years as leader of the opposition, during this time, the now president of the popular party, again toured one by one all the corners of the Galician community, to present himself this time to the citizens. Feijóo not only toured Galicia, but without forgetting the Galicians abroad and travelled to all countries in America and Europe where there is a Galician community. And so it was that, after only four years of hard work and brilliant opposition, the current president of the Xunta achieved his first absolute majority in 2009. Something that at first sight seemed very complicated as it was the first time he was standing in an election.
Throughout his career as president of the Xunta, he managed to overcome the economic crisis of the first years of his government, implementing austerity policies unprecedented in politics until then, and now has won the elections again, overcoming the worst health crisis in history and with a party at the national level that is a little worn out.
He is a talented politician with a great talent for oratory, a great parliamentarian and orator as can be seen in his public speeches, but he is also a manager with a great democratic and conciliatory disposition when it comes to carrying out his work as head of the regional executive. This also makes him a winner in short distances. Many accuse him of exercising a very individualistic and presidentialist policy, but the truth is that Feijóo is a team man. His core group of closest collaborators has been practically the same since 2009 and in some cases since he arrived in Galicia in 2003. Feijóo has managed to create and maintain a united team around him, which can be said to be largely responsible for his electoral successes.
After eleven years as president of the Xunta, on Sunday he won his fourth absolute majority, a triumph that makes the Galician leader even greater. And so on election night, we could see a jubilant Feijoo, greeting his collaborators, proxies and militants and celebrating his victory, to the rhythm of the disco song "One more time" by Daft Punk and not the official anthem of the Partido Popular. Last Sunday, Feijóo, addressed the voters thanking Galicia: "without Galicia I would be nothing in politics and the Galicians when it comes to Galicia are always there" and promising that he will govern for everyone until the end of the legislature. He thus closed the door on the possibility of taking over the leadership of the PP at the national level.
And if the Partido Popular was the big electoral winner in Galicia, the other big winner of the night that deserves special mention is the rise of the Galician nationalist left.
The Bloque Nacionalista Gallego (Galician Nationalist Bloc) achieved its best result ever in these elections.. The nationalist party, led by Ana Pontón, has become the second largest party in Galicia, surpassing the socialists, with a spectacular rise from 6 to 19 deputies.
Ana Pontón, who aspired to be the first female president of the Xunta de Galicia, carried out a great proximity campaign focused more on her social policies than on her nationalist ideals, and it paid off.
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Ana Gómez
Director of PROA in Galicia