The PP is still trying to assimilate the shock of a victory with a taste of defeat on the night of 23-J. The expectations played a trick on Feijóo. He won the elections with 136 deputies, but they do not give him the numbers to try to wrest Moncloa from Sánchez, who in turn depends on the votes of Carles Puigdemont. The insufficient triumph of the popular leader reopens the debate on the leadership of the party, especially in a hypothetical but possible scenario of electoral repetition. All the spotlights are inevitably directed at Isabel Díaz Ayuso, whom hundreds of supporters already cheered on election night when she went up with Feijóo to the balcony of Génova. The leader has wanted to calm the waters, at least for the moment: “If we were to go to a scenario of electoral repetition, of course [Feijóo] has to be the candidate,” said the Madrid president this Monday.

Ayuso, like the rest of the popular barons, has gone to the national headquarters in Genoa on Monday afternoon to face the meeting of the National Board of Directors, in which Feijóo has ratified his intention to launch an investiture after consulting with all the forces of the parliamentary arch, except Bildu. The Madrid leader, however, has found it difficult to ratify that support for Núñez Feijóo. Ayuso has been asked up to three times about the solidity of the Galician leader's leadership until he has ratified his support for his continuity. The doubts that some party cadres are beginning to point out is whether the current popular leader will remain at the head of the party in the event that Sánchez manages to re-edit the coalition. Feijóo seized the reins of the PP with a single bullet: “win” and “govern”. But the second is considered complicated.

“Feijóo has brought great stability to Spain, and he is a person loved by the Spanish. I am not the one to say what Feijóo has to do, but the important thing is to try. If things are difficult, we will have to face them”, settled Ayuso, who publicly supported the intention of the popular leader to run for the presidency of the Government despite the “enormous difficulty” of finding an “alternative” to an “implantable coalition of losers”, as the popular candidate had an impact on the party's senior staff minutes later.

The president of the Community of Madrid has also wanted to reduce the triumphalism that has been breathed in some cadres of the party for successfully covering a result that once again places the PP as the first political force and that allows it to recover 47 seats compared to the last generals. “Since yesterday I don't know what party anyone in this country can celebrate,” launched the leader.

In general, and although all the spotlights were on Ayuso, the PP barons have closed ranks with Feijóo and have supported his decision to attempt an investiture against Sánchez. The president of Andalusia, Juanma Moreno, acknowledged in the minutes prior to the meeting in Genoa that the party had problems “managing expectations”, and he blamed the demoscopia for the same strategy because “every day we were receiving polls that gave us 150 seats. It is the expectation generated by the published opinion”, summarizes.

Discouragement and even frustration spreads in the popular ranks. Deputies, senators, members of the national leadership, mayors and regional presidents arrived this Monday at the Genoa headquarters. the question was repeated. “What happened?” asked the journalists, to which many leaders shrugged their shoulders. Messages of encouragement prevailed over congratulations among popular leaders. One of the reasons to which the popular attribute the low result of Feijóo has to do with the “division” of the vote with Vox and the “irresponsibility” of those of Abascal to encourage this fracture. “In Murcia they have gone from being the first force to third. Maybe they do have to rethink their strategy”, launched for example the president of the Region of Murcia, Fernando López Miras.