Alberto Núñez Feijóo was elected new president of the People's Party of Spain

Alberto Núñez Feijóo, a centrist and sober politician, was elected this Saturday president of the conservative Spanish People's Party at the extraordinary congress held by the first opposition formation in Seville, announced the president of the meeting, Teófila Martínez.

“Congratulations, President,” Martínez said after announcing that the single candidacy of Feijóo, 60, president of the Galicia region since 2009, had received 98% of the votes of the more than 3,000 members, who thus entrusted him with closing the crisis and returning the party to power.

Moderate and pragmatic, Núñez Feijóo is a regional leader who commands the unanimous respect of a Spanish right convalescing from a serious internal crisis, which he will champion in the next elections to be held in less than two years.

The only candidate to assume the reins of the People's Party (PP), Núñez Feijóo was officially appointed this Saturday in Seville, following an extraordinary congress of the Conservatives convened after a fratricidal war that resulted in the fall of his former boss, Pablo Casado.

The 60-year-old Galician leader forged his solid reputation in his native region, located on the Atlantic coast in northwestern Spain, which he has been leading for 13 years thanks to four consecutive victories by absolute majority, a real feat in this country of high political fragmentation.

“Feijóo is the best leader in a difficult time,” said Jorge Azcón, head of the PP in the Aragon region, recently. “He is a serious politician, which nowadays means the opposite of what we usually see: frivolity. He likes to integrate, he doesn't divide,” he added.

A poll released in March showed that Núñez Feijóo is the most respected political leader at the national level.

In the PP “everyone thinks that Feijóo is the right person,” Fran Balado, journalist and author of the biography of the politician “El viaje de Feijóo”, told AFP.

“He is a moderate because he manages to seduce progressive voters,” he said.

This ever-neat and serious-looking fishing enthusiast is often described as a “common man” of good manners who inspires confidence.

“Responsible and obedient”

Born on September 10, 1961 in the town of Os Peares, Nuñez Feijóo grew up in a modest family with a father who worked in construction and a mother who was dependent on a shop.

A scholar boy described as “responsible and obedient”, he enrolled in law at the University of Santiago de Compostela with the idea of becoming a judge, but he had to start working in the public administration in 1985 to help his family when his father became unemployed.

He took his first steps in politics in 1991, working in the Galician “Ministry” of Agriculture for a future Spanish Minister of Health, who took him with him to Madrid in 1996.

In the capital, he directed the National Institute of Health and then the Post Office, before returning to Galicia in 2003 as regional head of Public Works.

After assuming the leadership of the Galician PP in 2006, then in the midst of crisis, he won the regional elections in 2009. And he began to gain fame for strict management of public funds without cuts in health or education.

Between tears

In 2018, when the Spanish Parliament overthrew the president of the government and head of the PP, the Galician Mariano Rajoy, through a motion of censure, Núñez Feijóo was seen as the natural successor to lead the conservatives.

But he surprised all of Spain when he waited until the last moment and announced, tearfully, that he would not show up.

His rising career faced a scandal in 2013, when photos from two decades ago were published in which he could be seen on a boat with the Galician smuggler Marcial Dorado, later convicted of drug trafficking.

Núñez Feijóo acknowledged that they were friends, but said he never knew about their illegal activities in Galicia, the usual entry point for cocaine into Spain.

As leader of the PP, Núñez Feijóo will have as one of his main missions as one of his main missions to recover the conservative voters seduced by the far-right formation Vox, which he kept at bay in Galicia without winning a single seat in the regional parliament.

Discreet with his personal life, the politician's partner is businesswoman Eva Cardenas, former director of Zara Home, with whom he has a five-year-old boy.

Known for his love of seafood, a Galician specialty, he is a fan of the Deportivo La Coruña football club.

(With information from AFP)

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