Spanish PM in waiting learns English ahead of general election

Alberto Núñez Feijóo, Spain’s conservative prime minister in waiting, says he is learning English as he prepares to take power.

Mr Feijóo appears on course to become Spain’s next leader after a clear win for his Popular Party (PP) over the country’s Left-wing prime minister Pedro Sanchez in local and regional elections last week.

Spain’s likely next leader has vowed to repeal his predecessor’s most socially liberal policies, including a law allowing anyone over the age of 16 to freely change their official gender, with younger children also able to do so with the oversight of a court.

But first he intends to work on his English, he revealed in his first television interview after Sunday’s surprise election victory.

“My problem is English… I have to start studying it,” said Mr Feijóo, 61.

He added: “I already had an English teacher set up to start learning on Monday, but now it turns out I’ve been called to a general election. Well, no problem.”

‘Bruce Sprinter’

On the campaign trail last month, Mr Feijóo went viral after he was caught on camera mispronouncing rock legend Bruce Springsteen’s name, calling him “Bruce Sprinter” during a party rally.

He brushed off suggestions that his language skills might pose a problem as prime minister, however.

“International summits normally have translators and what’s most important is that I know what I want to say,” he said.

Mr Feijóo has largely stayed quiet on the policies he would pursue once in power, instead capitalising on fatigue with Mr Sánchez’s style of government, known as “Sanchismo”, and a series of woke reforms championed by the Socialists’ hard-Left coalition partners.

Mr Feijóo has vowed to “repeal ‘Sanchismo’ and “all those laws inspired by minorities that go against the majority”.

He has also said he will repeal the current government’s “democratic memory” law, which made the state responsible to exhume the 100,000 bodies that remain in unmarked graves as a result of repression during Spain’s civil war and the Franco dictatorship.

Faced with the likelihood of needing the support of the far-Right Vox party to have a parliamentary majority, Mr Feijóo has attempted to paint himself as a moderate conservative.

He has described abortion as a woman’s right, and is considered less hawkish against separatists in Catalonia and the Basque Country than some previous PP leaders.

Mr Feijóo was president of the northwestern region of Galicia for 13 years between 2009 and 2002, four times winning absolute majorities in the regional assembly and earning plaudits for his calm management style. Galicia had the lowest death rate from Covid-19 of all Spain’s mainland regions.

While his English skills are lacking, Mr Feijóo’s love of the Galician language helps him to build bridges with Catalans and Basques.

His predecessor Mr Sanchez, meanwhile, is the first Spanish prime minister to have shown a command of English and has built a reputation for his engagement with international politics.

But his decision to call a snap election has disrupted Spain’s six-month tenure of the rotating EU Council presidency, which starts on July 1, just three weeks before the election.

Spain’s government has requested that Mr Sánchez’s appearance before the European Parliament to lay out Spain’s objectives for its presidency be postponed from July 13 until September. It may end up being the mild-mannered Mr Feijóo who delivers that speech.