Feijóo vows normal ties with PSOE after Nov 29 vote

Feijóo promises normality with PSOE regardless of leader

Alberto Núñez Feijóo has committed that, if he governs after November 29, he will restore a normal institutional relationship with the PSOE regardless of who leads the party after the elections. The statement, made at the start of the conversation, did not go unnoticed: the majority response was distrust. Not because of what he promises, but because of what it reveals about how the speaker understands power.

The announcement comes during the pre-campaign period and while the PP is still finalizing its own pact strategy. The promise of normality with the historical adversary sounds like a statesman's gesture, but also like a confession: the relationship with the PSOE has become an asset to be negotiated, not a framework to be respected.

Suspicion that PP seeks pact with PSOE

The dominant reading in the conversation is not that Feijóo wants to build bridges, but that he needs them. Some argue they would see the PP making a deal with the PSOE before one with VOX, and this assertion is not launched as praise. The promise of a "normal relationship" is interpreted as a wink to voters who antiestéticar an agreement with the far right more than coexistence with the left.

The problem is the sender's credibility. Distrust is not directed at the content of the message, but at the person pronouncing it. The idea that Feijóo needs supervision even to cast his vote sums up the climate: the "what" is not debated, the "who" is.

Useful vote and the ghost of abstention

In parallel, the conversation leaves a datum that no poll captures with such crudeness: the immediate circle of some voters does not intend to back the PP. The phrase "no one from my circle will vote for him" is not a survey, but points to a mobilization problem that the promise of institutional normality does not solve.

The circulating thesis is that the PP has lost the narrative of utility. If voting for the PP changes nothing, abstention becomes the most rational option. And there, the promise of dialogue with the PSOE works against them: for part of the electorate, normalizing the relationship with the adversary equates to renouncing the confrontation they expected.

PSOE as PP's original sin

The most repeated irony is that one is never sufficiently socialist. The phrase, which circulates with sarcasm, summarizes the underlying suspicion: some see the PP as a moderate version of the PSOE, a party that manages the inherited framework instead of transforming it. The promise of a normal relationship with the PSOE only confirms that suspicion.

The political calculation is evident. If the PP needs VOX to govern, the promise of normality with the PSOE is worthless. If it doesn't need them, the promise is superfluous. In both scenarios, the announcement arrives late and sounds like a preventive justification.

What "normal relationship" means in practice

The expression is vague enough for everyone to project whatever they want onto it. For some, it means respecting institutions and not blocking the ordinary functioning of the State. For others, it means sharing power with those who did not win the elections. The ambiguity is deliberate, and so is the problem.

With the data available at the date of this discussion, Feijóo's promise has not been accompanied by any concrete mechanism: neither an investiture commitment nor an explicit renunciation of pacts with VOX. Without that detail, normality is an intention, not a policy.

Is promising institutional normality enough to mobilize an electorate that distrusts the one making the promise?