Spain • • • 🌿 Progressive

Multitud de espaldas frente a un escenario iluminado en un pabellón cubierto durante un mitin
Imagen alusiva de un mitin en un pabellón cubierto. · Imagen generada por EPM

Feijóo fills Málaga hall and pledges rail review

Alberto Núñez Feijóo drew 6,000 people at the Carranque pavilion in Málaga, remembered the 115 victims of Urda and Adamuz, promised a full rail review and…

--- The context --- Spain heads into the pre-campaign for the 29-N elections with the rail accidents at Urda and Adamuz at the center of public debate. In nine months, two high-speed disasters left 115 victims and opened an argument about network safety, infrastructure management and the responsibility of those who run it. In that climate, the PP candidate for prime minister, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, chose Málaga and its Carranque pavilion for a mass rally in a region that will be decisive at the ballot box. --- The facts --- The event drew 6,000 people this Sunday at the Carranque pavilion in the Málaga capital. Feijóo kept up his line of criticism over the Urda and Adamuz accidents, which he described as continued negligence, remembered the 115 victims of the two disasters and offered a special condolence for former minister Fátima Báñez, from Huelva, who died in the latest rail accident. The candidate proclaimed that he had come to lift Spain up and presented himself as a manager against a progressive term that he identified with corruption, waste and decadence. On rail policy, he promised to review rail transport inch by inch so that fear disappears and safety returns, and said he would check every sleeper on the network. After criticizing the money given to the resigned executives of Adif, the company responsible for rail infrastructure, he demanded that they return it and that the money be used to compensate the victims of the disasters. He also replied that Spain must look less abroad and more at its own problems, look less at Brazil and more at how to fill the fridge with basic food, and look less at Trump and more at the trains, because the country, he argued, is collapsed and does not work. --- The positions --- Feijóo defended his record as his best speech: 30 years managing public affairs at the head of the Xunta de Galicia and previously in the administration. He said he wants to give the country back its hope, that he knows how to govern for those who vote for him and those who do not, and that voters should expect work, service and honesty from him, without frivolity or raised voices. To disarm left-wing arguments against the PP, he insisted that he will maintain and revalue pensions, and reproached the left for drawing parallels between the 29-N vote and the defeats of Donald Trump's party in the United States or the victory of Lula da Silva in Brazil. The Andalusian president, Juan Manuel Moreno, backed the candidate and asked for the support of socialists disappointed with the government, appealing to patriotism, ethics and honesty, and asking whether Pedro Sánchez deserves four more years at the head of Spain. Moreno also argued that the socialist government has punished Andalusia for voting PP in the last five years and that the shortcomings in investment and infrastructure are no coincidence. Feijóo, for his part, identified Sánchez's term with corruption and immorality and named Koldo García, José Luis Ábalos, Santos Cerdán, Leire Díez, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and Óscar Puente as the protagonists of the most relevant cases, promising that everything will be known and cleaned up. --- What remains unknown --- It is still unknown how the full rail review promised by Feijóo would be carried out, what timetable or cost checking every sleeper would have, or whether the resigned Adif executives will return the money demanded for the victims. Nor is the concrete scope of his proposals on housing, inflation and fair taxation clear, beyond the priorities listed at the rally. --- Unanswered questions --- Will the promised rail review become a plan with deadlines, a budget and identifiable responsibility before 29-N? Will the resigned Adif executives return the money demanded and will it reach the families of the 115 victims as compensation? Will Moreno's appeal to disappointed socialists move votes in an Andalusia that elects 60 deputies and 32 senators? --- EPM analysis --- Andalusia holds the largest electoral prize of 29-N, with 60 deputies and 32 senators at stake, and Málaga is a PP stronghold where the party has won the last five elections and governs the region since 2019. Also present was Francisco de la Torre, who has spent 26 of his 84 years as mayor of Málaga. The PP looks left and right: it aims to grow against the PSOE while defending its space against the growth of Vox shown by the polls, the party with which Moreno governs in the Junta and which he avoided mentioning. 📌 EPM Take: In EPM's view, the Carranque rally organizes Feijóo's campaign around two measurable promises, rail safety after 115 victims and management as a guarantee after 30 years of record, and that raises the bar of his own demands. If the network review and the return of the Adif executives' money remain mere proclamation, the discourse of efficiency will turn against its author. If they take shape as a plan and a timetable, the candidate will have turned the pain of Urda and Adamuz into a verifiable commitment before the voters.
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