Feijóo calls Sánchez 'authoritarian' before European and Latin American conservatives at Madrid forum

The first edition of the Libertas Forum, organised by the European People's Party (EPP) in Madrid on 15 July 2026, became a platform for the Spanish right to paint Pedro Sánchez's government as an authoritarian threat. Before an audience of European and Latin American conservative leaders, PP head Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Madrid regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso delivered back‑to‑back attacks, warning of a weakened democracy and demanding international attention.

Feijóo's portrait of an 'authoritarian' president

Feijóo avoided naming Sánchez directly but listed traits that left no doubt. "To recognise an authoritarian you don't have to ask what he thinks; just observe what he seeks to control," he said. The PP leader then enumerated the tell‑tale signs: "If he distrusts judges, if he disdains parliamentary majorities when they don't favour him, if he questions the independence of institutions and fears the ballot box when power is not guaranteed, don't look further, that is an authoritarian president." The speech came one day after David Sánchez, the prime minister's brother, was sentenced to nine years of disqualification for administrative prevarication, a fact Feijóo folded into a broader call: "Enough of political corruption, enough of autocratic power, enough of the destruction of values."

If he distrusts judges, if he disdains parliamentary majorities when they don't favour him, if he replaces merit and effort with state dependency, if he questions the independence of institutions and fears the ballot box when power is not guaranteed — don't look further, that is an authoritarian president.

Ayuso's plea to the European Union

Speaking in the same slot, Isabel Díaz Ayuso urged EPP leaders not to dismiss Spain's troubles as a domestic affair. "It is hard to believe this is happening in an EU member state, but it is. Venezuelans and Cubans couldn't believe it in their day either," she said. Ayuso described the government as "a movement to destroy the rule of law" and argued that silence from Brussels would be regretted across the continent.

We are not facing a left‑right battle. We are talking about a fight between the rule of law and the arbitrariness of power. This has a contagious and very dangerous effect.

International backing and the forum's purpose

The event, held at the Eurostars Tower on Madrid's Castellana, gathered 400 attendees from 42 countries. EPP president Manfred Weber opened by stressing the need to "build bridges" amid geopolitical fragmentation, while Italy's deputy prime minister Antonio Tajani called Feijóo "the next president of Spain." Venezuela's opposition figure Edmundo González and Peru's president‑elect Keiko Fujimori also attended, lending weight to the EPP's ambition of deepening transatlantic conservative ties. The final declaration, previewed by Weber, promised to expand cooperation between Europe and Latin America.

A domestic crisis dressed for an international stage

Behind the rhetoric, Feijóo's intervention capitalised on a fragile parliamentary moment for Sánchez. Only a day earlier, the government lost a key vote on spending limits and deficit targets, a defeat that complicates the 2026 budget. Feijóo used the forum to assure allies that a future PP government would anchor Spain firmly within "Europe, the Atlantic alliance, independent institutions and the defence of liberty," while promising to end the era of "a democratically elected government that whitewashed and did business with dictatorships."

The forum marked the 50th anniversary of the EPP and was designed, in Feijóo's words, to confront "populism, polarisation and disinformation." For the Spanish opposition, it also served as a dress rehearsal for a general election campaign, with the PP leader closing his speech saying, "We will defeat him sooner rather than later."