Feijóo opens door to no-confidence vote after Zapatero charged

Feijóo changes tack: the no-confidence vote returns to the centre of the board

The charging of former prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has been the last straw. With the PP pointing to corruption as the defining issue of the legislature, Alberto Núñez Feijóo has moved from calculated ambiguity to opening the door to a no-confidence motion against Pedro Sánchez. "I will do everything possible to bring about a change of government," declared the Popular Party leader, in a shift his team interprets as a response to the "last straw" of corruption under Sánchez.

Feijóo's calculation: opportunity or trap?

What until a few weeks ago was a flat no has become a double-edged manoeuvre. Feijóo knows that tabling a motion without guarantees of success exposes him to failure, but not making a move leaves his flank open to Vox, which already accuses him of being a "minister of the Opposition". Internal and external pressure is mounting: Sociedad Civil Española has called a "March for Dignity" on 23 May, and more than 120,000 people have already taken to the streets of Madrid demanding elections.

The PP leader has urged the PNV and Junts to "remove the government" with a motion that leads to early elections. "I have contacts at this very moment in real time with all the political forces," he assured, in an attempt to force an alternative majority. But scepticism is enormous: Junts hints that it could support an "instrumental" motion without Feijóo as candidate, which leaves the PP in an uncomfortable position.

The role of Junts and the left: sabre-rattling

Junts, for its part, is playing its own game. It demands elections from Sánchez and questions the continuity of the legislature, but does not rule out a no-confidence motion without Feijóo. Carles Puigdemont's party knows that any move pays off in negotiations. Meanwhile, Yolanda Díaz has urged Feijóo to table the motion "out of strict dignity", a statement some read as an attempt to wear down the PP whatever happens.

In the PSOE, the fracture is evident. The president of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, has already suggested to Sánchez that "when the target of the defeat looks the other way, citizens send the message ever louder". And socialist mayors are mobilising to force the general election forward to March 2027. The pressure comes from all sides.

Armengol's veto and the war on the Congress Bureau

The speaker of Congress, Francina Armengol, has twice blocked initiatives by Junts and the PP to vote on an early election or a confidence vote. A decision branded a "stitch-up" and "self-coup" by the opposition, which denounces that Congress is being prevented from pronouncing itself knowing that Sánchez would lose. The Congress Bureau has become a battleground where the government tries to buy time.

The PP finally managed to get Congress to vote on a motion urging Sánchez to submit to a confidence vote, but Armengol again vetoed a vote on a Junts amendment calling for elections. The institutional standoff intensifies as the streets boil.

What if Feijóo doesn't dare?

Scepticism about Feijóo's determination is widespread. Critical voices compare him to "Kermit the Frog of politics" and see him settled into the comfort of opposition, afraid to govern in a context of possible instability. "He won't do anything that endangers his post as minister of the Opposition," the harshest critics sum up. Even among those who want Sánchez to fall, the doubt is whether Feijóo is the alternative or just a manager of the status quo.

With Zapatero charged and pressure from Vox, the pro-independence parties and civil society, Feijóo holds the upper hand. But every day he delays the decision, the wear and tear accumulates. The question hanging over Spanish politics is whether the PP leader will take the definitive step or put the motion back in the drawer.