The PP candidacy in Catalonia has been shaken six days following the announcement of the electoral advance. The national leadership faces two complex scenarios: the election of its candidate, under the shadow of an internal conflict, and the negotiation with Ciudadanos to run on a single list on May 12, which has become complicated in the last few hours. The national leadership at the headquarters on Génova Street in Madrid prioritizes the closing of the pact with CS, which has been complicated because those of Carlos Carrizosa refuse to join the PP lists and demand a coalition of parties; Meanwhile, the leadership is debating between continuity or a change at the head of the list. The dilemma in which the popular leadership has been divided, and which Alberto Núñez Feijóo must resolve, involves raising an alternative candidacy, for which the best placed is the head of the European popular delegation, Dolors Montserrat, or maintaining as number one to Alejandro Fernández due to the fear of a train crash if he is relieved.
Feijóo has not yet plucked the leaves of the daisy, while time passes and the PP gets nervous. “There is a part of the party that believes that Dolors should be the candidate, but she is reluctant, and another part that thinks that Alejandro should be left, although it has caused discomfort that raises a fight to stay. Right now I would say that the probabilities are 50% between Dolors and Alejandro,” say sources close to the PP leadership. The decision may still be extended because the deadline to present candidatures does not end until April 8 and the lists in the PP usually close at the last minute. “Anything can happen,” summarize the same sources, who warn that Catalan women are key to “consolidating the national message” of Feijóo. On the contrary, a resounding victory for the PSC might work “like a lifeline for Pedro Sánchez,” these popular voices warn.
The decision on the PP’s commitment to Catalonia, therefore, is strategic for Feijóo, who has to weigh the pros and cons of forcing or not forcing a replacement at the head of the list. On the one hand, the polls predict a growth of the PP (up to 11 or 12 seats compared to the 3 it now has in the Parliament) without having yet confirmed the candidate, which leads some leaders to the conclusion that in this campaign ” the candidate, whoever he is, is not going to be as relevant” and how the strategy is focused is more important. However, Fernández’s detractors allege that the deputy is “unpredictable” and “there might be disparities between his speech and the one who sets the national direction, when it is very necessary for both to be aligned.”
Other voices from the party that are participating in the discussion regarding the Catalan candidacy affirm that Fernández “has managed to be a media reference throughout Spain, but he also won only three deputies in the last elections and has not been busy forming a party in Catalonia.” “We have to look for someone who does not subtract and who also plays a part,” insist these sources, who also point out other possible names to replace Fernández. That of Daniel Sirera, leader of the PP in the Barcelona City Council, although he wants to stay in the City Council, and that of Nacho Martín Blanco, former CS spokesperson and head of the PP list for Barcelona for the last general elections. “That Génova wanted to replace Fernández for a long time is obvious, but he kept putting off. Now they are evaluating other options and also evaluating what would happen to Fernández if they tried to force him out,” these PP voices explain.
In the environment of the current leader of the Catalan PP, they contrast that he has the support of “70% of the local boards” of the PP in Catalonia and the majority of constitutionalist civil entities. Councilors and activists are also giving him their support on the network with the label Me with Alejandro. Fernández wants to continue leading the candidacy and has expressed this in the discreet conversations he has had with the members of the management who have contacted him in recent days. Genoa continues, however, without confirming him. And Feijóo said in an interview in OKdiary who wants to resolve the negotiation folder with Ciudadanos before addressing the issue of the candidate.
The problem is that the agreement with CS has also become tangled. The possible pact does not look good because both parties have entrenched themselves in opposite positions. The popular ones flatly reject participating in a coalition, asserting their initials, while Ciudadanos assures that either there is a coalition or they go separately.
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The conversations have run aground because the PP proposes that Ciudadanos candidates end up joining their lists and they categorically reject it. “In Catalonia it is impossible for Ciudadanos to be absorbed by the PP. Neither the members nor the deputies would accept something like that,” say CS sources, who rule out participating under the name of another political party. “Either we go alone or in the company of others, but never that way,” they warn. After suffering a loss of councilors and deputies, Ciudadanos has practically disappeared throughout Spain but in Catalonia, where it was born in 2006, it survives with six seats, although the latest polls place them outside the Parliament. The PP pursues the pact with CS to definitively absorb its former voters, who fear that they will remain abstained if there is no agreement. “It seems that they are the ashes of CS,” they point out in the PP, “but the ashes can still cause a lot of damage.”
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