The PP has fully entered into a stark fratricidal war with unforeseeable and almost certainly dire consequences. The outbreak of hostilities by the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Diaz Ayusoagainst the party president Paul Marriedbroadcast live throughout Spain, can only further weaken the main opposition party and, therefore, give tricks to the extreme right, which, as was demonstrated last Sunday in Castilla y León, is consolidating day by day as the main threat to the hegemony of the popular in the Spanish right. In fact, the internal dispute within the PP broke out just four days after those elections, sponsored by Casado to reinforce himself against Ayuso. But the result was not what was expected. The popular Castilian-Leonese won by the minimum and have been left in the hands of Vox. Now they are in a rut. A timely temperate José María Aznar already warned them on Wednesday in the Equestrian Circle of the inconvenience of governing with the extreme right.
From the electoral mishap, the leader of the PP came out weakened while the Madrid president grew up. Now, Ayuso and the national leadership, through the mouth of the general secretary, Teodoro Garcia Egeathey have crossed accusations of unprecedented virulence. From Genoa insinuations of corruption are spilled by a contract of the Community of Madrid in which Ayuso’s brother would have charged commissions, and this one, which admitted that charge, accused Casado of promoting a ruthless campaign to destroy it. This being the case, the situation at this moment is that the management has opened a dossier to the president of Madridwhich, although it is early to know, could end with her expulsion from the party, and is studying legal action against her for pouring “almost criminal” attacks against Casado.
The fuse was the information, advanced by some media on Wednesday night, that the PP, from the Madrid City Council, had hired detectives to spy on Ayuso. Both Genoa and the mayor deny it, but Angel Carromer, coordinator of the Mayor’s Office, a friend of Casado and Martínez-Almeida and who would be the one who hired the detectives, had to present his resignation this Thursday. The Madrid PP has a long history of espionage. From the so-called “gestapillo”, when the Aguirre government spied on people trusted by the mayor Ruiz-Gallardón, to the recorded recording of the theft of the creams by Cristina Cifuentes, or the kitchen casenow in court and that affects the state PP.
It is the lack of modesty in the internal fight that most reputational damage can do to the PP, whose militants and voters are stunned by the events. But the impudence of this internal battle in the first opposition party also harms Spanish politics as a whole, because it alienates citizens from parties and institutions, and can contribute to undermining the country’s prestige outside our borders. Especially, because if the PP leadership was aware of irregularities should have taken them to the Public Prosecutor’s Office and not used them to blackmail who intends to dispute the leadership. The fight has gone so far that there is no possible truce in sight. Meanwhile, the PP is badly injured and Pedro Sánchez, without a rival on the right, sees his continuity in Moncloa cleared. But who else can benefit from this unfortunate situation is voxwhich will continue to grow at the expense of the popular crisis, which entails a serious risk for Spanish democracy.