Alejandro Fernandez He warned that he would speak “without tutelage.” And so he did. In the first speech of the president of the Catalan PP after the controversy for questioning the decision of Alberto Nuñez Feijóo To include Junts in the round of contacts for the investiture, Fernández has been clear. “The best service you can do to your country and your party is to give your opinion. And I am going to continue giving it, freely and without tutelage. It is an inalienable right,” he stated as soon as he began his political conference.
In an auditorium of the Gran Marina hotel, Fernández has asked to give a response with “absolute firmness” and “without hesitation” to what he considers to be a “new independence challenge” and to move away as much as possible from the temptations to “copy the PSC “, whom he has accused of having been erased from the constitutionalist bloc. According to Fernández, there are temptations to approach theses like those of the socialists to improve results in Catalonia, but he has warned that: “we are neither the PSC, nor can we be, nor do we want to be.” A warning to Feijóo that has sounded like an amendment to what he has been defending since his arrival, with commitments to ideas such as “constitutional Catalanism” and “cordial bilingualism.”
And he also wanted to make clear what his political commitment is from now on. Fernández has aligned himself with the theses of the former president Josep Maria Aznar and has described as “humiliation” the possibility of a amnesty lawor that there are changes in the state of the autonomies such as those proposed by Lendakari Urkullu, who considers that it would be making a “second transition for an asymmetrical confederal Spain” through “the back door.”
On this point, he has supported Genoa’s current strategy and has assured that he will support the president of his party, Alberto Nuñez Feijóo, in the fight against this amnesty and that will be at the event that the popular are preparing for the other weekend. “They intend for us to once again be the ‘paganinis’ and the bargaining chip for pacts with the separatists. We are not going to allow it,” he exclaimed, also asking all constitutionalism to “reconstruct” itself again to fight against what he considers which is the return of the ‘procés’.
Without the most prominent faces of the party
After weeks of silence, Fernández decided to hold a conference to present his political opinion in an event titled ‘The separatist process, part 2: what now?’, and which managed to bring together many representatives of constitutionalist entities – from Societat Civil, until S’ha Finish or Escola Bilingüe-. However, the event was marked more by absences than by presences.
His two squires in the Parliament listened to him attentively from the front row, Lorena Roldan and Daniel Serranoin addition to the congressional representative María Dolores Llanos de Lunaand there were also historical ones like Milian Mestre. But heavyweights like Manu Reyes, Daniel Sirera, Dolors Montserrat, Santi Rodríguez, Josep Tutusaus or Nacho Martín Blanco were not there; most of whom alleged scheduling problems. Although perhaps the most notable absence was that of the party’s deputy secretary of organization, Miguel Telladowho despite being in Barcelona this Thursday -where he held an informative meeting with Sirera- and holding a meeting with the provincial leadership of Barcelona -without Fernández-, has not stayed for the conference.
The origin of the conflict
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The PPC president’s disavowal of Feijóo upset an important part of the party, which saw it as Fernández’s umpteenth discourtesy to the state leadership, but also as the beginning of a struggle to remain in the party leadership, given the possibility of that Genoa convene a congress to relieve him. Currently, relations between Fernández and the state leadership are practically non-existent. Fernández does not attend the barons’ meetings in Madrid and his participation during the last campaigns was practically testimonial.
However, Genoa wants to wait for the state situation to be resolved before calling the postponed congress. Furthermore, the Catalan elections are not scheduled until February 2025 and, therefore, there is no urgent need to look for a new leader, who would also be the candidate for the Catalan elections. Although it is not at all clear who Feijóo’s alternative would be. In recent months, several names have been heard, from Dolors Montserratuntil Manu Reyes either Daniel Sirera, but according to several sources consulted, none of them wanted to take the step. At least, for now.