The president ignores all calls for attention and remains in office without making changes to his team or his project, despite the internal discomfort
The two blocks, with Casado or against him, begin to count to fight the internal battle and force an extraordinary congress
Paul Married has decided to entrench itself in Genoa. He resists alone against a vast majority of the PP that has asked him not to throw everything overboard. They first demanded the end of hostilities with Isabel Díaz Ayuso and the dismissal of the general secretary, Teodoro García Egea, in order to continue supporting him after the hair-raising week that the party has experienced. He neither solved the conflict with Madrid nor has he chosen to do without his number two. His decision to tie himself to the presidency of the PP leads the internal crisis to a next phasewhere all the efforts of the opposition to Casado are focused on convening an extraordinary congress.
The weekend has passed without Casado having found a way to pacify the PP and with the historical image of a demonstration at the gates of Genoa of almost 4,000 people, voters and supporters who are the ones who should support La Moncloa. The inaction in the face of this protest has convulsed the party and has opted against the leadership of the organization’s officials who until now supported them. “It is evident that today (yesterday) is a before and after”, critics assure Casado. Although Genoa is already using the protest as an argument to attack Ayuso.
“He has been left alone, with Egea and the deputy secretaries”, assure sources from the block that since Thursday is organizing to overthrow Casado. In it live those in favor who had to give him one last chance, asking in exchange for Egea’s head, and those who only see the exit of an extraordinary congress. Now the time has come for the latter and their movements will be perceptible in the coming days.
Cracks in the hard core
Although the pressure has been “maximum”through calls, the media, the polls that point to a beastly growth of Vox, of the demonstration itself, Married has opted for a flight forward. For this Monday he has summoned the leadership of the PP with all normality. Not even for his people is it easy to know what will come out of that meeting, which is the one that takes place every week. But just as his organic support begins to suffer, so does his hard core crack. Party sources assure that Ana Pastor, one of the deputy secretaries of the PP, has indeed transmitted to the popular president that perhaps the most convenient thing would be to hold the extraordinary congress. As this newspaper has been able to verify, more people from the management have doubts that Casado is acting correctly.
Casado’s position leaves the PP fractured in two. With the president or against him. In this last block appears, of course, Ayuso. But in these moments of destabilization this dynamic has been overcome. It is not with Pablo or with Isabel, who also has their own political and judicial problems due to the Community contracts that involve his brother. It is with Casado or against him, for understanding that his leadership does not give more of himself. The public confrontation with Ayuso, the alleged espionage, the accusations of corruption is the latest chapter in a malaise that has been brewing for a long time.
Looking at Feijoo
This sector, which looks to Alberto Núñez Feijóo as an alternative, will now take new steps to ensure that the congress is already convened. In fact, some do not share the celebration yesterday of the protest in Genoa. “It is a bad and dangerous precedent,” they point out, who see themselves only represented in the purity of the organic pathway. The X-ray of the PP right now is that half support Casado and the other does not. But the latter argue that the management can be “surprised” by the desertions they observe in their ranks. They also warn that although Genoa claims to have control of the provincial presidents, the grassroots unrest and the intermediate squares is so great because of Casado’s performance that “they will not obey the local leader.
Everyone already assumes that the The only way out is to measure yourself in a congress and they have begun to test the supports. Especially Genoa, which is trying to maintain the stake and the pressure of an immediate resignation by bringing together the support it has in the different communities. Those close to García Egea remember that the key in the parties continues to be “in the provincial power & rdquor; because they are the ones who really decide the distribution of delegates in a conclave.
Provincial power is key
And at this point, leaders close to Casado and even some regional president, assure that “The management has a lot of territorial power” and, specifically, “the support of the Valencian Community, Aragon, Murcia, Balearic Islands, Castilla La-Mancha, Canary Islands and Catalonia”. And they emphasize that they also have followers in the two communities with the most critical barons. In the three provinces of Galicia (except Pontevedra) and in most of Andalusia (except for Malaga and part of Cádiz and Huelva), according to the calculations they handle,
With this exhibit, the ‘casadistas’ intend to make it clear that “there is a party & rdquor; and that if the war reaches a vote in the board of directors or congress “there is nothing said & rdquor;, – Andalusia and the Community of Madrid are the ones that contribute the most delegates in a congress and these delegates, different sources emphasize, are proposed by the provincial presidents. At this time there are not a few leaders who remember “the importance & rdquor; that García Egea gives to the structures of the party and since he assumed the general secretary of the party he convinced Casado that the renewal should be done “from the bottom up & rdquor ;. He also shared the idea with one of his most trusted men, Carlos Mazón, president of the Diputación de Alicante and leader of the party in the Valencian Community.
The power of Aegean
Both agreed that the most important thing to rebuild the party after the motion of censure that expelled Mariano Rajoy from Moncloa and with Casado on top was “start with the local, move to the provincial and, finally, to the regional”. That is why they devised this system of phased congresses that left the election of the party presidents in the communities for last. The great conflict unleashed between Casado and Ayuso over the power of the PP in Madrid has a lot to do with the system. The idea was to leave the Madrid conclave for last and hold it at the end of June.
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The calendar is still up in the air after the elections in Castilla y León. Of the multiprovincial congresses, only Extremadura is missing (Catalonia and the Basque Country will suffer a greater delay) and, later, it will be the turn of the uniprovincial congresses. In this context, leaders close to Genoa insist on “the power that García Egea has been accumulating & rdquor; in the provinces and remember how the general secretary has spent the last few months visiting each town in the autonomous communities. “Each town counts & rdquor ;, they say, recalling one of the maxims that Egea tells his people.
After two days in which the only thing that has been known about the national leadership is that they will close Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s file after accepting the latest clarifications about her brother and the call of the management committee for this Monday, different positions consider that it has become clear “that they will not give in & rdquor; and that “they will try to stay as it is”.