García Albiol for PM: the plan B splitting Spain's PP

García Albiol for PM: the test that splits Spain's right

Xavier García Albiol is not, by any stretch, the PP's natural candidate for Moncloa (the Spanish PM's office). But the current situation, with Alberto Núñez Feijóo failing to take off in the polls and Isabel Díaz Ayuso overshadowed by legal troubles in her personal circle, turns his name into an uncomfortable hypothesis. The question of whether you would vote for him as prime minister is not a poll. It is a test of coherence for the entire right.

Some see him as a right-wing PSOE: more of the same with a different face. For others, his folksy style and his hard line on immigration are exactly what the party needs. One wing of those critical of the current leadership would back him without hesitation; another, more purist, current argues that if Albiol were trustworthy he would already be in Vox. The right, coming apart at the seams once again.

The most interesting nuance emerges on governance: nobody disputes that he would serve better at the Interior Ministry than the current minister. But the premiership requires more than a hard hand and closeness to the neighbourhood. And on the economy, the debate gets tangled up in immigration: some call for inflows to sustain pensions; others admit that no party will curb the hiring of foreign workers because it is employers who fund it.

In between, a gem for the anecdote book: someone quips that the real president of Spain is the US ambassador in Madrid. With that level of analysis, the discussion could have ended any way at all.

The result is a portrait with no winners. Albiol neither convinces nor implodes. And the PP, meanwhile, still has no name of its own for the next electoral cycle. At this rate, the Albiol hypothesis will end up in the drawer of political fictions.