Spain: The People’s Party puts an end to its internal crisis by turning to the center

The Spanish People’s Party (PP), weakened by one of the worst crises in its history, will hand over the reins to a moderate right-wing figure tomorrow, Saturday, hoping to regain momentum against the left-wing government and rise of the far right.

Alberto Nuniet Feijo, 60, president of the Galicia region (northwestern Spain) is the sole candidate for the PP presidency at the party’s special congress today and tomorrow in Seville (southern Spain).

The existence of a single candidate signals the party’s willingness to put an end to its divisions after months of war between outgoing leader Pablo Cassado, 41, and Madrid district president Isabel Diazhe Agnuso, 43, and Isabel Diaghos Agnemeno, 43. of PP.

Feijo has a reputation for being moderate and realistic and has led Galicia for 13 years, winning an overwhelming majority in four consecutive elections and becoming a PP “baron” unanimously respected by party members.

Having managed to prevent the far-right Vox party, which is on the rise in Spain, from settling in its periphery, it also managed to put out the fire after the publication in 2013 of photos revealing its friendship with a drug trafficker, whose activities he claimed he did not know.

“We aspire to be the reference for all Spaniards who have shown confidence in us and for those who have never done so,” he wrote on Twitter before the conference.

“New stage”

His experience, which is unanimously welcomed, seems like an advantage to end the internal crisis of the PP, which erupted in mid-February, when Isabel Diaz Ayuso accused Pablo Cassado of maneuvering to “destroy” her after he had put to be spied on by some of his associates.

Cassado’s entourage suspected Diath Ayuso of unfair influence under a mask purchase agreement signed in April 2020 by the Madrid region for which her brother, Thomas, a representative of a company selling medical supplies, had taken supply.

This crisis eventually led Pablo Cassado, who was already criticized by the “barons” of the party for lack of leadership.

“It’s time to start a new stage,” said Esteban Gonthales Pons, a PP MEP who has taken on the task of organizing the conference.

Seville’s choice to make it is symbolic: in this city in 1990 a former Franco minister, Manuel Fraga Iribarne, had handed over the leadership of the Conservative party to the young Jose Maria Atnar.

Atnar, who served as prime minister from 1996 to 2004, will speak at the conference, as will Mariano Rajoy, who led the country from 2011 to 2018.

Threat from Vox

Feijo comes at a very important time for the PP, which wants to regain ground over Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in anticipation of the next parliamentary elections scheduled for the end of 2023.

The situation in the country “may be complicated” for Sanchez, says Ana Sophia Cardenal, a professor of political science at the Open University of Catalonia, for whom the “rise in prices”, intensified by the war in Ukraine, will significantly burden “the budget of the Spaniards”.

In this context, Feijo, “who has a more central position” than Pablo Cassado, “could get votes from the center, even from the center-right,” he said.

The new PP leader will also be tasked with curbing the rise of the supranationalist Vox, the country’s third-largest political force founded by former PP members.

“We do not lose hope of recovering some of those who left,” a senior PP official told AFP on condition of anonymity. However, he emphasizes that he wants to put an end to “a speech” that under Kasados ​​”was semantically aligned with that of Vox”.

For Ernesto Pascual of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, ​​the PP must “attract the centrist masses who brought Atnar and Rajoy to power.” He explains that “turning to extremism will not allow him to achieve a governing majority”.

However, according to opinion polls, the PP may need Vox to have a national majority, and with Feijo’s blessing, it has agreed to include this formation for the first time in a regional government in Castile and Leon.

SOURCE: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ