When political opponents slide back into aggressive hooliganism, the tendency can soften hostile personal feelings toward the Prime Minister and shift public perception from policy to emotion.
The most challenging task for journalism is to separate the personal perception of events from their broader consequences. Take, for instance, the effort to celebrate popular moments in leaders like Sanna Marin without weighing their broader impact on the middle-class electorate. Writing in the first person should not dominate mass media, because it often reflects a single truth. The abandonment of analytical clarity can obscure that the vote against Pedro Sánchez was driven more by personal sentiment than by a coherent political assessment.
The PP’s strategy, both clever and improvised, involved positioning an executive like Núñez Feijóo against a president viewed as radical and, at his worst, sharing street-level hostility with the predecessors. The challenge lay in timing, as it would be difficult to keep the most rebellious factions of the right aligned for an entire year. The era of conservative calm has ended, replaced by a tension that did not help Sánchez’s standing but instead opened a window for him to extend it.
In the current climate, a move toward hooliganism by the right could overturn personal hostility toward the Prime Minister. Feijóo, seen as the stabilizing force after a period of intense emotion, would not provoke a flawless consensus but rather improve the mood by reducing distrust compared to his opponent. The dynamic did not prove that hysteria had migrated to the opposite side, but it did emphasize the stakes and tempt the public to react more emotionally than rationally.
Insults directed at Sánchez during the Hispanidad parade, described in crude terms, mark a turning point in the ongoing ideological tension. As with Sanna Marin, the personal and societal visions can collide, shaping the Head of Government’s public image this month. Freedom of expression clashes with the sense that political leadership is precarious, and that actual change might be on the horizon. A sense of fear re-emerges among social groups watching from the wings. In such moments, individual voices can fade as perceived threats to dignity become more salient. The idea of a corporate vote for Sánchez begins to emerge as an option for citizens navigating a fluid political landscape, where choosing what one represents may feel more important than respecting fixed identities.
The risk for the PP is not simply losing elections to entrenched extremism but allowing a bias toward fringe voices to shape outcomes. Feijóo’s Senate appearance on a tense day reflected a broader dynamic, as the right faced familiar, nostalgic missteps that had previously weakened the PSOE. In many neighborhoods, the impulse to defend the status quo can give room to misjudgments that do more harm than good. Vox’s ambitious gambit to secure 36 seats reads as a miscalculation rather than a shortcut to victory.
The far right’s most notable win is not a higher vote share but a smaller portion of the population willing to rule it out under any circumstance. This pattern is global and mirrors shifts in public sentiment, such as the cautious appeasement of previously polarized figures. The idea of repositioning political actors to the center-right remains a recurring theme, even as the public’s sense of identity and allegiance fragments. Observers note that leaders who appear more chaotic than ideological may still exert influence beyond their obvious rhetoric.
Across the political spectrum, a revival of assertive far-right sentiment in Spain would likely remain a minority force. It blends function with image, and the left has faced a surge in far-right visibility that raises questions about the reasons behind those gains. Even as some propose drastic changes in governance, residual currents continue to shape social evolution in subtle, persistent ways.
Confronted with a Feijóo who seems weighed down by echoes of the past, Sánchez now faces the risk of an emotional pivot that could undermine stability. Yet, he has not given up. Enthusiasm resurges whenever new polling data appears, underscoring the ongoing debate about how much the corporate vote, inflation, and public sentiment can influence outcomes. Surveys from activist researchers carry little weight for some observers, while others see them as part of a broader ebb and flow in political legitimacy. Spain remains at a crossroads, with the path forward uncertain but far from decided, and the current moment not the worst scenario for Sánchez.