Feijóo requests meeting with Sánchez after CERA vote count

Feijóo proposes dialogue with Sánchez trinc CERA vote

What do you write to someone who doesn't need you at all? Feijóo sent a letter to Pedro Sánchez once the CERA (voting abroad) count was complete, proposing a meeting "for the benefit of Spain's political and institutional stability." According to the narrative circulating in discussions, the Executive head's response left the PP leader worse off than before sending it. What should have been a gesture of statesmanship turned into a scene that is hard to tell if it’s funny or embarrassing.

The scrutiny that left the PP far from an absolute majority

Feijóo won the general elections with more than 40 seats gained compared to previous polls, but the result still isn't enough to govern alone. Winning and being able to form a government are not the same thing, and that gap explains the letter. The only viable arithmetic sum pointed to Vox, which dropped from 52 to 33 seats after the recount, though it retained 83% of its votes. A necessary yet uncomfortable partner: sufficient to add up, insufficient to boast about.

Sánchez's reply was read as coming from someone who knows time is on their side. Little to lose and much to show. The meeting Feijóo requested in writing remained, for now, just an exchange of letters.

Why is it argued that the PP preferred the PSOE over pact with Vox?

This is the most repeated thesis and should be taken as what it is: an interpretation. Some argue that the PP and PSOE share more interests than they admit, and that both blocs feel more comfortable with each other than by making pacts with Vox. The corollary of this reasoning is that the investiture process seeks not to govern, but to keep power distribution away from the uncomfortable partner. None of this is proven fact; it is a political reading.

Against this stands a simple argument: a party that wins general elections tries to govern with whoever is needed, and renouncing the only possible sum amounts to giving away the Government. For that current, the letter to Sánchez is not a gesture of responsibility, but the confirmation that having the PSOE in La Moncloa suited the PP better than having Vox in the Council of Ministers.

The resignations Abascal does not offer

The comparison has circulated since the recount itself. Pablo Iglesias went from 71 to 35 seats and stepped down. Albert Rivera fell from 57 to 10 and also left. Abascal, however, drops from 52 to 33—a loss of around twenty seats—and remains in place. The date of July 30 is repeated as a reminder that no one has made a move due to that loss.

Vox's defense relies on another data point: in percentage of vote, it maintained 83%, and the drop in seats responds to both transfer and territorial distribution. Under that prism, resigning would be a disproportionate gesture. Under the opposite prism, it is exactly what consistency demands when criticizing rivals.

Sánchez's response and the candidate's wear

The underlying reproach is not the letter, but what it reveals: a candidate offering dialogue to the adversary he just beat, who says he consults with Felipe González and maintains contact with the PSOE, while simultaneously guarding his majority where he can. The response received, according to this chronicle, was from someone who doesn't need the gesture and profits from the weakness.

Episodes circulate used as arguments for wear, including the case of fining €60,000 those who didn't get vaccinated, presented simultaneously as a sanction and a non-obligation. The accumulation of such gestures, argues part of the analysis, erodes the leader's authority more than any parliamentary defeat.

With these elements, the letter to Sánchez functions as an unexpected photograph: that of a winner asking permission. And the response, like the stamp underneath.

If the criterion for resignation were losing seats, Abascal's seat would have been burning for weeks. If the criterion were being exposed, Feijóo's has already cooled completely. Neither moves a piece: perhaps the chair withstands more than dignity.