Let’s Step Out of the Mistake

Spain’s political drama has reached the point where the opposition’s errors are as consequential as the government’s missteps — perhaps more so, because they reflect not just tactical misjudgment, but a failure of strategic imagination. In Salgamos del error, the author uses the metaphor of a classic Cuban bolero — one in which the singer laments having abandoned a past love and calls to return to it — to indict the People’s Party (PP) for abandoning the political instinct that once gave it electoral success.

The PP made a fateful decision years ago not to embrace the political force embodied by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who, after dominating elections in Madrid and crushing rivals there, was sidelined in favour of Alberto Núñez Feijóo. In the article’s telling, that was not merely a leadership choice but a fundamental strategic error — one that left the party adrift and unable to compete effectively with Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist government.

There’s a striking contrast drawn between the two figures. Ayuso is portrayed as a political instinctive — someone capable of cutting through rival narratives and halving the support for parties like Vox, as she allegedly did in Madrid. Feijóo, by contrast, is described as lacking both charisma and courage, reluctant to make hard decisions within his own party and unable to embody the kind of audacious leadership that could have repositioned the PP as a national alternative.

The column invokes a quote attributed to Margaret Thatcher — “If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman” — to underscore the argument that, in crucial political moments, the PP should have placed its bets on decisive leadership rather than cautious centrism. This was especially salient “when there was a killer across from them,” meaning an adversary in Sánchez who is depicted as a formidable political operator.

This error isn’t merely about personnel; it’s about timing and political instinct. The PP’s internal power structures — what the column calls its invisible sanhedrin — chose comfort over confrontation, continuity over reinvention. The result: while Ayuso was put “in the freezer,” Vox filled the space the PP ceded, and Sánchez’s position strengthened accordingly.

The piece is unsparing about Feijóo’s leadership. It criticises his reluctance to remove his own party’s ineffective elements, his misplaced focus on occupying a vague centrist space, and his confusion of political grammar with substantive strategy — exemplified by his recent odd comment that Sánchez causes him “stupor,” a mistake of vocabulary that the author sees as emblematic of substantive confusion.

The wider point is clear: Spain cannot emerge from its current political stagnation so long as the principal opposition party refuses to confront its foundational errors. The article urges the PP to rethink its assumptions, reconnect with the political instincts that once made it a governing force, and reclaim the initiative from a government that has managed to shape the agenda while opposition forces bicker over inconsequential gestures.

In invoking Salgamos del error — “let’s step out of the mistake” — the column challenges not just the PP’s leadership choices but its entire strategic posture: if Spain’s centre-right hopes to be a credible alternative, it must abandon timid retorts and embrace bold direction. Otherwise, the political field will continue to tilt in favour of those who have already capitalised on its missteps