Aznar endorses Feijóo and targets Vox as PP calls for concentrated vote in Spain

Aznar endorses Feijóo and critiques Vox leadership

At the closing session of the FAES Foundation campus in Madrid on 25 September 2026, former prime minister José María Aznar endorsed Partido Popular leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo. Speaking at the Fundación Ortega-Marañón during the conference titled 'Latin America in transformation: consequences for the European Union', Aznar contrasted Feijóo with political demagogues. Aznar, who led the PP from 1989 to 2004 and governed Spain between 1996 and 2004, directed criticism at Vox president Santiago Abascal. He recalled an April 2019 campaign photograph in which Abascal posed in seventeenth-century military attire at a tailoring workshop. Aznar argued that genuine patriotism requires restraint and stated that Spanish politics needs a prolonged diet to shield it from unscrupulous charlatans.

“He does not need to dress up as a captain of the Tercios to boast of being Spanish; Alberto has never reduced love for Spain to a masquerade, because deep feelings, when they are genuine, are not displayed, they are demonstrated.”

The strategy of vote concentration

Aznar urged voters to unite behind the PP in the upcoming general election to secure a workable governing majority. In his opening address on 23 September 2026, Aznar rejected both left-wing plurinational models and right-wing essentialism, presenting the PP as the sole governing alternative to prime minister Pedro Sánchez. Aznar noted that mathematical totals in parliament differ from political realities, arguing that a strong single-party mandate is necessary to prevent what he termed reverse sanchismo. He framed the election around attracting two key demographics: conservative voters alienated during the Mariano Rajoy era and former Socialist supporters who backed the PP reform agenda in 1996. Aznar stated that he expects Feijóo to return to the 2027 FAES campus as head of government, a remark Feijóo characterized as a challenge.

“I ask everyone for confidence in Alberto, before anything else, because I have it.”

Feijóo outlines national reconstruction plan

Feijóo delivered the closing address of the conference, framing the general election as an effort to restore public governance and renew the constitutional social contract. The PP leader stated that his objective extends beyond removing Sánchez from power to dismantling his governance model. Feijóo cited administrative handling of housing, power grid blackouts, wildfires, and pressure on Badajoz judge Beatriz de Biedma as evidence of state decay. He declared that he is prepared to exhaust his political capital from his first day in office without seeking future career options. Feijóo also noted that Spain must act as a reliable partner in international affairs without becoming a subordinated nation.

“What has broken in Spain is the social contract that sustains trust in the state.”

Parliamentary dynamics and regional coalitions

The conference addressed the relationship between the PP and Vox, which currently govern together in four autonomous communities: Extremadura, Aragón, Castilla y León, and Andalusia. On 23 September 2026, Feijóo and Abascal exchanged a brief handshake in the M-30 corridor of the Congress of Deputies following a parliamentary session. Although opinion surveys project that the two parties could combine for close to 200 seats in the 350-seat parliament, Aznar and Feijóo maintained that only a direct PP majority can implement economic and constitutional reforms. The event also featured remarks from FAES secretary general and PP MEP Javier Zarzalejos, following international outreach efforts by Feijóo, including his July attendance at Keiko Fujimori's inauguration in Peru.