The first setback of the 'walker' Bendodo: the Andalusian strategy did not work in Spain

When Alberto Núñez Feijóo announced that he was signing Elías Bendodo for his team, the man from Malaga endorsed a way of explaining his satisfaction that he has later repeated on numerous occasions. “I enjoy the path more than the goal”. Thus, the popular leader wanted to show that his departure from Andalusia after reaching an absolute historic majority in the old socialist stronghold was not traumatic. That his objective was to do with Feijóo the same thing he had done with his friend Juanma Moreno, but in the Moncloa palace.

This objective has been frustrated after an unexpected mobilization of the left and the overturning of the polls that almost took the alliance between PP and Vox for granted.. “This week it will be decided whether Feijóo will be president alone or accompanied,” Bendodo said in an interview in Diario de Sevilla in the middle of the campaign. Seen with perspective, the astute Andalusian politician was optimistic, since the popular candidate has a very difficult time reaching the goal with the arithmetic that came out of the general elections on July 23. The first setback on that path of success for Bendodo, someone who has never been in opposition since he began his political career as a councilor in the Malaga City Council.

Bendodo, a lawyer by training, went from the Malaga town hall to the Provincial Council, where he was president for two terms. Then he made the leap to regional politics, although he was for years the spokesman for the regional leadership of the Andalusian PP since Moreno took control of the party. The popular ones got the worst result in their history in Andalusia, but they governed thanks to an agreement with Ciudadanos and the external support of Vox in Parliament.

The man from Malaga became the Minister of the Presidency and spokesman for that first non-socialist government in Andalusia and was key in the consolidation of the Executive. Moreno trusted him again to direct the 2022 regional campaign and that's when he received his doctorate in winning elections. It is not strange that Feijóo, who arrived in Genoa with the endorsement of the Andalusian PP after the traumatic crisis caused by the departure of Pablo Casado, wanted to take Bendodo to Genoa for the challenge that was coming: winning the generals scheduled for the end of 2023.

National Board of Directors after the victory of #23J.

Prepared to give a stable government to our country. pic.twitter.com/KSZanEylHz

— Elias Bendodo (@eliasbendodo) July 24, 2023

Already as general coordinator of the PP, de facto number 3 of the party, with an office on the noble floor of Genoa 13, the man from Malaga had the municipal and regional elections on May 28 as a test. And he scored another success by recovering municipal power for his party that had not been seen since the 2011 elections. That file led Feijóo to make the logical decision to appoint him as head of the decisive campaign. It is true, popular sources point out, that he shared responsibility with the other two people trusted by the Galician at the top of the party, the parliamentary spokesperson Cuca Gamarra and the deputy secretary general for Organization, Miguel Tellado, one of the men who went to Madrid with Feijóo from the dome.

The poll problem

In the Andalusian PP they say that Bendodo took charge of the most “statistical” part of the campaign, which included the polls that ended up missing the shot and confusing the popular. The purely organizational section, these sources explain, corresponded to the other two members of that triumvirate. “The polls confused us all,” points out a popular leader questioned about the possible responsibility of the man from Malaga in the PP's setback, which has left him 6 seats away from building a majority with his partners from Vox and UPN.

The PP's relations with Santiago Abascal's party were also fertile ground for the man from Malaga. One of his main tasks during Juanma Moreno's first term was to keep Vox in Andalusia at bay, with the help of Feijóo's other Andalusian signing, Juan Bravo, who negotiated three budgets with the populist formation. It must be remembered that the institutional irruption of Vox occurred in Andalusia in the regional elections of 2018 and that the Andalusian leaders of the PP are the best versed in negotiating with the ultra party.

During part of the 23-J campaign, the PP's main message focused on imitating that “Andalusia effect”. With this effect, the popular ones were referring to the capture of the socialist vote that saw a PP with a moderate image as the best formula to become a retaining wall for Vox. This is what happened in June 2022 for Juanma Moreno to achieve a historic absolute majority after a campaign in which the PSOE stirred up fear of Vox to try to mobilize his own and achieved just the opposite..

This time, the Socialists did the same, but the municipal and regional pacts of PP and Vox were too recent and the strategy ended up working.. At least that is what the Andalusian baron defended in plenary this Thursday in the regional Parliament. “Each bullshit from Vox was half a point in the polls for the PSOE,” said a PP leader in Parliament, where Bendodo, by the way, has just left his seat to go to Congress. Settled in Madrid since last year, he will continue running in those races that he uses to strengthen ties while waiting to see what happens with the investiture and if he has an opportunity to reach the finish line or continue walking.