Feijóo is not some mystery Galician Sun Tzu
The PP's lack of mental clarity about what to do with Vox is a strategic problem.
A lot of nonsense is being written and spoken about the PP and its strategy, or the lack of a strategy, with Vox: it’s about making the electoral numbers work in reach region; it’s about Feijóo giving his regional generals the freedom to do what they want; it’s Feijóo being quiet and very smart, with a low profile, like some mysterious Galician Sun Tzu. These are all ways of trying to justify obvious chaos and lack of mental clarity after the fact.
Last night, there was another ideological lurch, when the country learned about another agreement between the PP and Vox in Aragon. So a deal in Valencia and now in Aragon too, where they are all great friends, but not in Murcia and definitely not in Extremadura, where Vox is considered a plague. This morning, El Confidencial’s front-page headline is about voices inside the PP calling for "a demonstration of authority by Feijóo" given the "chaos" with Vox and the "lack of leadership" at the national level. Feijóo is running for Prime Minister, to set the course of the Whole Nation. If he doesn't know how to put his house in order first, we're all in for a rough ride.
The different levels of strategy have their steps and hierarchy. Alliances with or attitudes towards other competing formations that have different values and principles are a matter for the grand strategy of the party, for the long term, for that level of life that encompasses everything we claim to be and mean to carry out. It’s the level of the definition of the project and its basic promise, internally for members and commanders, and externally towards other parties and the millions of voters that we want to vote for us.
If we are clear about that part, if we know that in general in the long term we are going to make common cause with some others in two or three major points, we can begin to apply that to the next level, the strategy for a specific phase or campaign. The local and regional elections at the end of May, for example, which everyone knew was coming for a long time. "Given this major event, and with the polls looking like they do, if we win but not resoundingly so, and if we have to do a deal with Vox, our strategy will be X". That is the question journalists always try to ask and the one that politicians always dodge, because that requires clarity of though and commitment. They all want to be a permanent empty signifiers.
If that were done properly, each regional general could try to implement that broad strategy on his battlefield in some coherent way, according to the values and alliances that the party, the electoral brand, had decided on at the national level, and voters would know what they were really voting for.
Operation May Elections begins, full of rallies and media hyperactivity and extravagant political promises, and then ends on voting day. Ballots are cast at polling stations all over the country. There are millions of real voters loose across the Kingdom. There is no turning back now. Alea iacta est. And the enemy has something to say about the situation too. He will disagree with what we suggest, oppose it, and put sticks in our wheels to make us fall. He wants more votes too.
And every day during the operation, things happen right now, at the level of tactical battles, that we have to react to, and they are often surprises that no one expected, and it is also frequently not very clear what is really going on. We will not get our dream for free, even in the hypothetical case that we were very clear about the higher levels of thought. And in every territory where we try to carry out the operation, different problems appear that later on, if we were to look at the whole from a certain distance, would have certain similarities and can be fixed with common solutions.
When the sun rose on May 29, the battle of March 28 had left havoc throughout the country. To finish conquering some regional and municipal mountain tops, the PP and Vox would have to fight together for a while, even when mutual disgust or contempt were present, because some thought the others a cowardly right or nationalist brutes. The Prime Minister, on the enemy side and more skillful or thuggish in these matters, immediately announced, that very morning and without giving anyone time to take a breath, that Operation July General Election, the Battle for the Nation, would begin straight away, crushing his weakest rivals in a matter of days and creating chaos and confusion on the enemy side.
And here we are, four weeks later. Due to a lack of mental clarity at a grand strategic or strategic level, due to a lack of leadership and organisation, the PP is treating major higher-level questions regarding its attitude towards or its possible alliances with Vox—which are obvious to voters or columnists—as a tactical matter, a disorderly reaction in the immediate day-to-day of events, hoping that no one notices, when what is needed is a long-term decision at the highest level, to set the course for the long term. The PP can’t be Carlos Mazón in Valencia and María Guardiola in Extremadura, condescending towards chaunvinist violence and also firmly opposed to it, ditching local equality departments and swearing to fight for feminism, at the same time.
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