In the midst of the exchange of reproaches between PSOE and PP for corruption, Casado’s entourage says that he will remain silent as until now
MADRID, 31 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
This April 2, Alberto Núñez Feijóo celebrates two years as president of the PP with the disappointment of not having managed to become a tenant of the Moncloa in last year’s general elections, despite the enormous territorial power that the party has held since May 2023, an election in which he managed to dye almost the entire map of Spain blue by obtaining 11 regional governments, thirty provincial capitals and 40% of the town councils.
Feijóo faces this second anniversary as leader of the PP with an eye on three imminent electoral events: the Basque, Catalan and European ones, and with the uncertainty of how the results can shake up the national political board and affect the Government of Pedro Sánchez. who has given up presenting a Budget project this year after the early elections in Catalonia.
In fact, Feijóo (1961, Os Peares, Orense) sees the legislature as “lost” and has asked Pedro Sánchez to “pack his bags” in Moncloa because he leads a Government “in agony”, which is neither “useful” nor “useful”. “to the Spanish. “This Government can no longer be fixed, it was born broken. The breakdown is greater every day and it is impossible to fix what is not working,” he said two weeks ago.
On April 1 and 2, 2022, the more than 3,000 PP delegates gathered at the extraordinary congress in Seville elected Feijóo president with 98.35% of the votes, putting an end to Pablo Casado’s leadership after a deep internal crisis that convulsed the party.
The hidden war between Casado’s team and the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, had been going on for a long time but imploded in mid-February 2022 in a virulent manner with accusations of alleged espionage and corruption.
Casado then demanded that Ayuso clarify whether her brother received 286,000 euros in commissions for mediating a mask contract in the middle of the pandemic, while the Madrid president accused ‘Génova’ of linking her to corruption without evidence. Months later, the Prosecutor’s Office would archive that investigation of Tomás Díaz Ayuso.
On February 23, 2022, Casado met with the ‘barons’ of the PP, who showed their support for Feijóo – he had been at the head of the Xunta de Galicia for almost 14 years – who was anointed as the new leader in the Seville conclave. , where he promised to “unite” the PP and “stitch” the wounds.
In a few months, he achieved the comeback of the party and reaped enormous territorial power in the regional and municipal elections held a year later. However, he did not manage to evict Pedro Sánchez from the Moncloa Palace in the general elections that were held just two months later. Some campaign errors and negotiations with Vox in several territories penalized the ‘popular’ at the polls.
Two years after leaving the Presidency of the PP, and in the midst of the exchange of reproaches between PSOE and PP for the corruption of the ‘Koldo case’ and the case of alleged tax fraud that affects Ayuso’s partner, Casado’s entourage has confirmed who will continue to stay away from political life and out of the media spotlight.
“For two years, Casado has imposed discretion and silence out of respect for the PP and I believe that Casado’s response is going to be discretion and silence,” sources close to the former PP leader have guaranteed, highlighting his “loyalty.” to the game at all times.
Other sources from his team at the time have told Europa Press that he is “happy” with his new professional life, linked to a technology and defense fund, in which he has surrounded himself with a powerful team. It has been a “change of life”, both at work and at home, add the sources consulted.
Feijóo is already preparing the electoral strategy for the upcoming elections between April and June, in which there will be two key issues: the amnesty law that is being processed in the Senate and, according to the ‘popular’, is “unconstitutional “; and the “Koldo plot” about alleged bites in the purchase of masks during the pandemic, which in ‘Génova’ has already been dubbed the ‘Sanchez case’.
What’s more, the PP wants the relationship of Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, with the airline Air Europa to be investigated, in the midst of negotiations for the rescue of the company in 2020. What’s more, it has not ruled out summoning her to appear in the investigative commission that is going to be created in the Senate.
After several street protests against the amnesty, Feijóo has already promised to repeal this rule if he reaches Moncloa, although he believes that it will not be necessary because the courts will have already done so de facto considering it to be “unconstitutional.”
The PP aspires to grow both in the Basque Country and in Catalonia, the two fiefdoms with the most organic weakness of the party. Feijóo will focus on both campaigns, especially the Catalan one, in which he seeks to turn the PP into “the first force of constitutionalism, once the PSC has ceased to be one,” according to sources from his team telling Europa Press.
However, within its objective of expanding the center-right space, it has not managed to fully integrate Ciudadanos, a party from which “more than 200 positions” had already been incorporated in recent years. The negotiations with the oranges were truncated just a week ago, a failure that ended with the resignation of the until now general secretary of Cs, Adrián Vázquez.
The European elections on June 9 will be the first national elections since the 2023 general elections and the PP takes them as a “plebiscite” over Sánchez, whom it sees as “cornered” by the ‘Koldo case’ and the amnesty.
The general secretary of the PP, Cuca Gamarra, considers that the European elections will be a “second round” of the elections of July 23, convinced that “without a doubt” Sánchez will suffer punishment because “he lied to all Spaniards, especially to all its voters. “And therefore, lying is penalized,” she declared last January in an interview with Europa Press.
