“We left the game to two kids”

The PP is preparing this Tuesday to correct the decision he made in July 2018 with the election of Paul Married as party president. The National Board of Directors will summon the extraordinary congress which will put an end to three and a half years of a presidency that failed from the beginning. People who have known very well what has happened during this time assume what, according to them, was a mistake: “We left the organization to two kids”referring also to the former Secretary General, Teodoro Garcia Egea. With hardly any work or vital experience beyond the life of the party, with zero knowledge, they emphasize now, of what Spain is and the real problems of citizens, “We give them all the power”.

That mandate has come to an end. But Casado will technically retain the position of president until congress, due to his refusal to resign as the barons unanimously demanded on Wednesday. This will allow him to deliver a speech today and another at the conclave. Popular sources assure that his intention is “defend his legacy” and “vindicate the work done” very intensely. He will do it, they maintain, not with the intention of delving into internal wounds but with the idea that “we must look to the future.”

In principle, there is nothing planned to fire him because, according to party sources, “Married will not leave tomorrow.” “He insisted on doing it in Congress.” Yes, it is expected that there will be interventions in favor of the PP turning the page and overcoming the most traumatic of its weeks. No one is yet sure what the still popular president will do. It is taken for granted that he will no longer attend Congress, but popular sources indicate that He has not yet communicated what he will do with the seat. “It’s his decision.”

Egea, until the end of the legislature

Yes, García Egea has revealed his intentions. In principle, the sources consulted indicate, its purpose is continue as a deputy until the end of the legislature. But in the parliamentary group voices are growing that point to “You should go now.” “He has done a lot of damage”. “Others can be recycled but not him.” The anger with the former secretary general does not diminish in the PP, despite the fact that García Egea always acted under Casado’s orders. as posted THE NEWSPAPER OF SPAIN the barons were willing to give Casado an exit but not his number two.

The PP wants to shelve this stage and focus on the new project it embodies Alberto Nunez Feijoo. With the congress formally convened this Tuesday, the President of the Xunta will wait until Wednesday to make it official that he chooses to lead the party. He himself pointed to this day yesterday in public statements. In any case, last week, at the meeting of the barons with Casado in Genoa, everyone understood that he was available to the PP to lead this new phase. Something that was evident since began the operation to bring down Casado with the union of several barons around Feijóo.

González Pons’ options

Although his team will not be known until the congress on April 2 and 3, to be held in Sevillein the PP the idea spreads that Esteban González Pons has many options to be the next secretary general. The journalist from La Voz de Galicia, Fran Balado, in his book Feijóo’s journey (an authorized biography), revealed that the MEP would have been chosen if the Galician president had chosen in 2018 to be the successor of Mariano Rajoy. Now in the party they believe that this idea is maintained. “It has many possibilities”. Feijóo, they explain, “wants him” but González Pons must clarify if he abandons his political career in Brussels to return to Madrid.

With Cuca Gamarra They are the two people with the most weight in the PP of this transition. He will be in charge of organizing the congress while the parliamentary spokesperson will be the general coordinator. The political management of the PP now depends on her, assuming that Casado will no longer interfere. There are doubts about the movements of the Egea environment in Genoa but it seems that all traces of opposition to Feijóo are deactivated.

Feijóo is not an assembly leader

The impression is that the Galician comes to build a ruined PP, willing to count on everyone and take into account the barons to the territories. But it is worth remembering that the president of the Xunta is not an assembly leader. On the contrary, he exercises power unceremoniously.

In fact, he was the one who raised Casado. If he had not endorsed him he would not have become president. Twice the future of the party was in his hands. When he decided that he would not show up. And when he chose Casado to avoid the appointment of Saénz de Santamaría. Casado usually says that militancy chose him. It is not true. The vote of the bases was won by the former vice president. He won in the compromisarios. He added to his own all the delegates of María Dolores de Cospedal (those from Galicia, included).

A failed command

Now the party sings the mea culpa for that. Actually, he’s been doing it for a long time. When Casado’s first 100 days in office were completed, the deficiencies of his mandate were already evident. Different party sources reported it then. “He doesn’t have a team.” “does not delegate”. “He decides everything with Teodoro and with Maroto (at that time the now spokesman for the PP in the Senate, he still had some influence”). “He lacks a reference adviser” (Genoa negotiated those weeks the end of the contract that Mariano Rajoy had with Pedro Arriola, recently deceased. “Freckle of overexposure.” “He does not heed advice to be more moderate.” “He tries to impose on the PP its ideology”, they assured in reference to the effort to reopen the abortion debate.

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Those who had supported him in the congress began to see clearly that it was not what they expected. Those who were with Sáenz de Santamaría, equally or more critical, were concerned only to survive. Most of these, both at the national level and in the different territories, were laminated to make way for leaders of less weight but more related to Casado. What has happened in the last week has led to the simplification of thinking that the concatenation of three events: Alberto Casero’s error in the vote on the labor reform, the meager result of the elections in Castilla y León and the public accusations of corruption against Isabel Díaz Ayuso have finished with him. Or that the savage style of Teodoro García y Egea has done it and his attempts to control the provinces “by blood and fire” to weaken the barons.

One of the people who knows the game best explains it clearly to those who want to hear it: “Voters go to Vox because they don’t see a clear leader in the PP”. Others, even in the PSOE, relate it by throwing a single question into the air: “Why have Feijóo and Ayuso managed to stop the extreme right in their territories with such different styles?” The party itself has given the answer in recent days.