Alberto Núñez Feijóo

Galician politics

Having once voted for the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) under Felipe González, Feijóo did not join the People's Party until 1991. After his role in the national health service, the President of the Community of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, wanted him to lead the same ministry in her region.^[4]

In 2005, Manuel Fraga of the People's Party of Galicia was removed from office after 15 years as President of the Regional Government of Galicia (PPdeG), when the Socialists' Party of Galicia (PSdeG) and the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG) formed a coalition to install Emilio Pérez Touriño in his place. At the congress to name Fraga's successor in January 2006, he prevented a divide by persuading leading candidates Feijóo and José Manuel Barreiro to run in tandem as candidates for the party's president and vice president respectively, thereby taking 96% of the vote.^[7]

In the 2009 Galician regional election, the PPdeG's share of seats rose from 37 to 38, thereby giving them an absolute majority of one.^[8] In April, he was invested as president by the 8th legislature.^[9] He won a second term in the 2012 Galician regional election, which he had called early. Despite receiving over 100,000 votes fewer than in 2009, his party gained three seats due to reduced turnout.^[10] In March 2013, members of the opposition called for his resignation after photographs from the mid-1990s were published of him with Marcial Dorado, who was later convicted as a drug dealer. Feijóo said that at the time, he had no knowledge of Dorado's criminal lifestyle.^[11]

Feijóo retained his majority in 2016 and 2020, the latter time increasing to 42 seats.^[12] He was tipped to run to succeed Mariano Rajoy as national PP leader in 2018 but turned it down, crying while declaring that being President of Galicia was his highest ambition.^[13] He resigned as president of the PPdeG effective from 1 April 2022 to take over the post in the national party.^[14]

President of the People's Party

In March 2022, the 20th National Congress of the People's Party was called to elect a new national party leader after the forced ousting of incumbent Pablo Casado, who had been losing support following a dispute with the President of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso. Feijóo put himself forward as a candidate, and was endorsed by regional PP leaders such as Ayuso, Jorge Azcón (Aragon), Alfonso Fernández Mañueco (Castile and León) and Juan Manuel Moreno (Andalusia).^[15][16] He ran unopposed as the only other prospective candidate, a 28-year-old local activist from Valencia, did not have enough verified signatures.^[17] He named the party's spokesperson in the Congress of Deputies, Cuca Gamarra, as the party's new Secretary General.^[18]

During Feijóo's candidacy, the PP formed a government with Vox in the Cortes of Castile and León. He endorsed the coalition, but said that he would not repeat it on the national level: "sometimes it's better to lose government than win it through populism".^[19][20] As party president, Feijóo halted his predecessor's plans to sell the party headquarters on Calle de Génova.^[21]

On 24 May 2022, Feijóo was elected by the Parliament of Galicia as senator for the region, for which he resigned his seat in the Parliament of Galicia.^[22] A year later, he led his party in regional and local elections. He attacked prime minister Pedro Sánchez of the PSOE for relying on parliamentary support from EH Bildu, a Basque nationalist party fielding 44 convicted ETA members as candidates, as well as for his government passing legislation on sexual consent that led to offenders having their sentences lowered or quashed.^[23]

The PP achieved absolute majorities in the city and Community of Madrid, and took regions including Aragon, the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands from the PSOE, leading Sánchez to call an early national election.^[24] The conservative party secured 137 seats,^[25] winning the elections but failing to achieve a parliamentary majority of 176 seats;^[26] however, King of Spain Felipe VI asked Feijóo to try to form government.^[27] On 23 August,^[28] The Congress of Deputies' Socialist speaker, Francina Armengol,^[29] announced that Feijóo's investiture debate would take place on 27 and 29 September.^[28] The debate's first vote failed, with 172 MPs voting in favor and 178 against; the second vote took place on 29 September,^[30] and it confirmed Feijóo's failure to become prime minister.^[31]

Following Feijóo's failure in his investiture vote, Sánchez was voted in as PM as Feijóo and his party summoned Spaniards to the streets in protest against Sánchez's proposed amnesty law for supporters of Catalan independence.^[32] After corruption cases rocked Sánchez,^[33] in January 2025, Feijóo opened the door to a motion of no confidence against Sánchez with the support of Vox and Junts, a pro-Catalan independence party headed by Carles Puigdemont,^[34] having previously refused to speak to Junts.^[35] At his party's National Congress on 5 June 2025, Feijóo was reelected as the party's president with 99.24% of the votes. During the event, Feijóo promised to lead the party to a "reformist centre" of the political spectrum in an attempt to attract both left- and right-wing voters, vowing to restore Spain's institutions after 7 years of Socialist rule.^[36] However, on 13 July, Feijóo announced that he would be willing to reach agreements with right-wing Vox in exchange for the party's support for a PP minority government, even though he promised he was confident in that the PP would gain an absolute majority in the next elections.^[37]

In November 2025, Feijóo led tens of thousands of protesters in Madrid demanding the resignation of Sánchez amid corruption scandals involving former ministers.^[38]

Basque Nationalist Party

Feijóo is a close friend and ally of Iñigo Urkullu, the former President of the Basque Country from the Basque Nationalist Party (EAJ-PNV). The pair first found common ground in 2013 when they defended their shipyards before the European Union. While Casado opposed further devolution to the Basque Country, Feijóo has been more sympathetic.^[42][43][44]

Healthcare

In 2011, Feijóo suggested that hospital patients should pay for non-medical service such as food and showers during their stay, and the following year he suggested privatising all that is not at the "core" of healthcare.^[45] In 2013, he said that healthcare would not be privatised under his government.^[46]

Immigration

In 2024, he criticised the immigration policy of the Sánchez government, accusing Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of "promoting Spain as a destination" instead of going to Africa to "fight the (migration) mafia".^[47]

In 2026, Feijóo condemned the Spanish government’s proposal to legalise approximately 500,000 undocumented immigrants.^[48]

Regional languages

Under Feijóo in 2009, the PPdeG dropped its support for the Galician language, which had been supported by his predecessor and founder of the PP, Manuel Fraga.^[4] In 2019, it was reported that Galician was now mandatory for all teacher candidates in the region, though Feijóo had personally said that knowledge of it would be desired but not mandatory. This policy put him against a proposal by national PP leader Pablo Casado, in which no public job would require knowledge of a regional language.^[49] During the congress in which he was confirmed as PP president, he declared their language policy to be one of "cordial bilingualism".^[50]

2025–2026 Iranian protests

While the Sánchez government initially refrained from issuing an official statement regarding the anti-government protests in Iran, Feijóo expressed his support on 9 January, stating: “The people of Iran are fighting for their freedom, with women at the forefront.” He further emphasized, “Spain must support without ambiguity those who risk their lives to be free. Without silences. Without nuances.”^[51]