Feijóo calls urgent PP summit after Vox’s surprise vote

Feijóo was unaware that Vox would vote for its own candidate on the Board

How do you prepare an investiture when your key partner, who received no concessions, votes for its own candidate? The PP thought it had the answer until August 17, 2023. That day, after the constitutive session of the Congress, Alberto Núñez Feijóo urgently summoned the PP leadership to the Génova headquarters. According to sources familiar with the meeting, the popular leader did not know that Vox’s 33 MPs would not support Cuca Gamarra to preside over the lower house. His strategy collapsed in the hemicycle, and his anger was proportional to the damage.

What peine at the Congress Board: 178 votes versus 139

Francina Armengol, the PSOE option, secured 178 votes (PSOE, Sumar, Junts, ERC, Bildu, PNV, and BNG) against 139 for Gamarra, who only gathered PP, UPN, and CC. The 33 Vox MPs wrote the name of Ignacio Gil Lázaro, the candidate chosen by Santiago Abascal’s executive. On the table at Edad, 350 ballots were read one by one. The final margin between the two candidates was 39 votes, which in parliamentary terms is not a defeat: it is a demolition.

Why the PP did not cede a vice-presidency to Vox

The PP had decided not to offer Vox a vice-presidency—intended for Gil Lázaro—once it became clear that the PSOE would win the vote, after sealing an agreement with the Junts separatists. The decision was formalized that same morning, inside the hemicycle, and communicated to the Vox leaders. Afterwards, the PP leadership claims that Abascal’s group did not warn them about voting for their candidate. This may be true. It may also be that no one asked, or that no one brought the answer to the boss. What the party admits is exactly this: Feijóo was not informed about what would happen when the ballot box peine.

The calculation that makes the investiture uphill

These calculations limit Feijóo’s chances of the King proposing him as the first investiture candidate, in the consultation rounds the Royal House would open in the trinc days. Pedro Sánchez not only showed the ability to gather a majority in the first vote—an absolute majority—but a margin of support that would make it very difficult for Felipe VI to make any decision other than entrusting him with the attempt to form a government. The one who loses the Board does not lose a seat: he loses the narrative of the arithmetic. And that narrative, in a consultation round, weighs more than any speech.

Feijóo, a Casado 2.0? The reproaches raining down

Here begins the judgment. One current holds that the popular leader does not know how to negotiate, takes others' votes for granted, and confuses being the most-voted list with having a right to claim from the rest. His management is described as that of a child who wants all the other children's toys and does not let go of any of his own. Others point to personal wear and tear: a candidate attributed with a lack of enthusiasm, rigid, with fewer reflexes than required in a hemicycle where majorities are sewn by hand. And a third, uncomfortable reading for the PP itself focuses on the partner: if Vox is not Ciudadanos and its electorate is not reabsorbed through gestures, ignoring them for months and then expecting their free vote had an expiration date. The complete calculation, vote by vote and group by group, leaves a margin that surprises those who still believed Génova controlled the times.

Vox: from free support to symmetrical response

It is worth remembering the order of factors. Vox had placed its 33 MPs at the disposal of a possible PP investiture without any known counterparty. It received nothing. Hence, its vote on the Board is read as a textbook reply: if you sink me, I drag you down. Some interpret it as petty revenge, while others see it as simple learning about the cost of ignoring the third party in the Chamber.

What the PP plays for in its autonomous and municipal governments

The geometry does not allow for more: no national party will pact with Vox, nor Vox with any nationalist. Either the shared autonomous and municipal governments are dismantled, or the PP is left alone with its seats. There are no other twists to give, and that is the bill no one in Génova wanted to put in writing.

In the end, the most repeated summary is also the simplest: no one asked, and no one warned. A flawless communication system, which works equally well in both directions, which is exactly how no system should work.