Aznar calls on Feijóo to build a 'national majority' against Sánchez, saying the next elections will decide 'system change'

Speech at Nueva Economía Fórum

José María Aznar, former Spanish prime minister and president of the FAES foundation, delivered a forceful address on Wednesday at a Nueva Economía Fórum breakfast in Madrid. The event, where he presented PP congressional spokesperson Ester Muñoz, was framed by Aznar as a call to action for the next general elections, currently expected in 2027. Aznar stated that the timing of the vote is secondary; what matters is that voters grasp the stakes.

“What matters about the next general elections is not when they are called, but understanding well what they will decide.”

The 'national majority' concept

Aznar exhorted PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo to assemble a "national majority" that he defined as a "broad, centred majority with appeal to both right and left around a historically reconstructive purpose." He insisted that "that majority will be national or it won't be," and called for a programme capable of attracting massive adherence. The former leader stressed that unity does not mean thinking alike, but "acting together" to solve common problems from a position of disagreement and institutional respect.

Critique of the Sánchez government

Aznar painted the current executive as a "voluntary hostage of its partners" that has signed a "Faustian pact" with radical minorities, delivering the "soul of the State" in exchange for "mediated power." He accused the governing majority of being "purely negative," united only in blocking alternation and carrying out a "looting of the State." The former prime minister presented the coming electoral contest as a choice between "the survival or the liquidation" of the constitutional nation and equality before the law.

“I have no hesitation in saying that these will be the most important elections in our entire recent democratic history. Because we are not playing for a change of government, but a change of system.”

Parliamentary deadlock and overtures

Aznar described a parliamentary pathology: the government neither dissolves the chambers nor raises a confidence vote, while Congress cannot assemble a constructive censure motion. He acknowledged that Junts, Carles Puigdemont's party, had floated the "Starmer route" calling for Sánchez to resign, but he interpreted the pro-independence group's stance as wanting only compliance with existing agreements on amnesty and plurinationality. Aznar nevertheless left the door open to counting on Junts in a future censure motion, stating that if majorities already exist to demand Sánchez's resignation, the task is to build one that can tear down his wall.

Ester Muñoz, for her part, questioned the hurry and outsourcing behind the government's handling of the "grandchildren's law" for nationality, while reaffirming that the PP has always supported nationality rights for exiled Spaniards.