5 ways
Spain’s conservatives plan to put the country on a new course
The
People’s Party launched its manifesto on Tuesday.
Alberto
Núñez Feijóo arrives for a state memorial in Valencia, Spain on Oct. 29, 2025.
| Jose Jordan/AFP via Getty Images
November 10,
2026 6:32 pm CET
https://www.politico.eu/article/5-ways-spain-conservatives-new-course-pp-alberto-nunez-feijoo/
Spain’s
conservative People’s Party launched its electoral manifesto in Madrid on
Tuesday in the run-up to the Nov. 29 snap election, as almost all pollsters
point to a looming coalition of the PP and far-right Vox.
The PP
already set out some of these measures in the ‘Contract with Spain’ — a list of
commitments modeled on the 1994 Republicans’ ‘Contract with America’ — which PP
leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo signed on Oct. 19. They also mirror those of the
European People’s Party in the European Parliament.
Here are
five ways in which the PP plans to take Spain in a dramatically different
direction after eight years of Socialist rule.
1.
Clampdown on migration
The PP plans
to harden Spain’s stance on immigration — a move that goes hand in hand with
Vox.
The
conservatives “will promote agreements to establish return centers in third
countries,” following in the footsteps of other EU countries such as Denmark
and Germany, which are already exploring this option. They will propose
deportation as “the standard procedure” for migrants convicted of sexual,
violent and repeated offenses.
The party
will ban future mass regularizations such as Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s
move to grant
legal status to 500,000 people — which Feijóo has fiercely criticized. The
PP will also make it mandatory for foreign nationals who want to renew their
temporary residence to sign an “integration agreement,” learn Spanish and
become “familiar with the Constitution and the values of the EU.”
2. Not so
green
As first
reported in POLITICO’s
Madrid Playbook, five nuclear plants would see their licenses extended. The
PP will also relax climate rules, putting “an end to the imposition of
unrealistic timelines,” based on three factors: “What is happening in the rest
of the world, the technology that is available at the moment and changes in
demand.”
On data
centers, the manifesto calls for additional capacity on the electricity grid to
meet Spain’s demand. On the fiscal side of energy, the document proposes to
“immediately eliminate the 7% tax on electricity production and reduce
fixed-rate energy contracts.”
3. All
quiet on the foreign front
While
Sánchez has been particularly vocal on foreign policy, criticizing Israel for
its war in Gaza and the U.S. administration, at times diverging from most of
his European partners, the PP will keep a lower profile.
The
conservatives will have a “stable and predictable” policy focused on aligning
Spain with the wider European consensus and prioritizing
its relationship with Latin America.
Migrants and members of Spain’s Guardia Civil are seen on
Tarajal beach in Ceuta on July 31, 2026. | Adri Salido/Getty Images
The PP,
usually dominated by pro-Atlanticist figures, also calls for a “balanced and
strong relationship between the United States and Spain,” marking a shift in
tone from the strained
relationship between Sánchez and U.S. President Donald Trump.
On the
southern flank, the PP will have a “policy of balance with Morocco and Algeria”
but steers clear of a tougher line on Rabat after July’s
Ceuta crisis. On Western Sahara — on which the Socialists made a dramatic
shift by backing Morocco’s 2007 autonomy plan — the PP says that it
will support the United Nation’s efforts, but it falls short of calling for
self-determination for the Sahrawi people.
4. 1M
more houses
On housing,
one of the campaign’s flashpoints, the PP promises to build 1 million homes
with a new land law and through streamlining building and renovation permits.
It also proposes reducing VAT from 10% to 4% for first-time buyers under 40.
The party
pledges to repeal the housing law, which allows regional governments to enforce
caps on rent in the so-called “stressed zones,” areas in cities under extra
pressure from tourism and a lack of rentals. The PP argues the caps reduce the
supply of rental housing, pushing prices higher. It also calls for tax breaks
for tenants and for landlords who renew leases.
The PP
promises to make it possible to evict squatters within 48 hours, and has made
Badalona Mayor Xavier García Albiol a key figure of its campaign on squatting.
5.
Judicial and media overhaul
Some of the
PP’s key proposals concern the renewal of institutions, as the PP has accused the Socialists of “invading” the state and
“circumventing checks.”
The
conservatives propose that the 12 judge members of the General Council of the
Judiciary be elected by judges themselves, rather than through the main
political parties. It also wants stricter eligibility requirements for members
of the Constitutional Court.
The PP is
also proposing changes to public broadcaster RTVE and to other institutions it
has criticized as being too close to the government, such as public pollster
the Center for Sociological Investigation.
It will call
for an audit of public bodies within its first 100 days in office.
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