The surprising advance of the Catalan elections has caught Alberto Núñez Feijóo with the wrong foot and without the homework done in Catalonia. The leader of the PP has been postponing for months the decision on the leadership of his Catalan party, which is also the decision on his project for Catalonia following two years – those he has spent as national leader of the PP – of recurring missteps. Now, once morest the clock, with the Catalans already called up for May 12, Feijóo is forced to face the dilemma of forcing a change or betting on continuity. For now, the signs that the party is emitting are confusion and entanglement. The national leadership of the party would prefer a replacement for the current president of the Catalan PP, Alejandro Fernández, a baron who has challenged Feijóo on issues as sensitive as the PP’s contacts with Junts, but doubts what his next steps will be because he risks a internal fire just two months before the elections.
The PP leadership avoided confirming Fernández as a candidate on Thursday, despite the fact that the deputy in Parliament already acts as if he were one. And he justified this lack of support, very relevant when the electoral pre-campaign has already begun, in which an agreement is being negotiated with Ciudadanos so that the leaders of that party can join the PP lists. But that would not have to imply that Fernández stopped being the head of the list. The reality is that the national leadership at the headquarters on Genova Street in Madrid has been wanting a replacement for its leader in Catalonia for some time without being able to force it until now because Fernández has come to threaten internally to fight. The problem now is that, so soon before the elections, an internal clash would be suicide in the opinion of the majority opinion of the party.
A leading leader of the Catalan PP with a very good relationship with the national leadership thus describes the entanglement that the PP is currently in with its poster in Catalonia: “It is possible that Alejandro Fernández will remain as a candidate, but it is not certain either.” ”.
The confusion has caused discomfort in the Catalan PP, where they regret that the national leadership generates problems when electoral expectations are for growth. “Once once more, Genoa is getting into unnecessary trouble just when the polls are smiling at us once more,” point out some PP sources.
The problem for Feijóo, in addition to the possible clash with Fernández, is that some of the names he has considered as replacements would leave a significant hole in his current responsibilities. This is the case of Dolors Montserrat, leader of the PP in the European Parliament, who has always resisted and who now has more arguments to do so because the European elections are held only one month following (June 9) the Catalan elections. And that of Daniel Sirera, party leader in Barcelona City Council, who had the key to the mayor’s office and wants to develop a long-term project in the city. But no one rules out that new names appear. “We must continue exploring possible candidates,” say sources familiar with internal movements.
Génova had been in a process of discreet dialogue in Catalonia for some time with different actors from the party and society to put together a new PP project in Catalonia, with the intention of representing the “constitutionalist” space. The management explained that they first wanted to clearly define what project they were going to present in Catalonia and then look for the head of the list. She also remembers that the power to confirm the electoral lists belongs to the national electoral committee, and therefore they are the ones who have the last word on the candidate in Catalonia. A different issue is the party, where Fernández might remain as leader without being able to move his chair.
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In parallel to this mess with the head of the list, the PP is studying with Ciudadanos a joint candidacy to compete in those Catalan elections and also in the European elections in June, as confirmed on Thursday by sources close to Feijóo. A process of integration of CS leaders into the PP lists is sought under the PP brand, although as independents, which would allow the popular party to finish absorbing the party of Catalan origin, which it recognizes “a legacy to claim.” in Catalonia.
The operation to absorb Ciudadanos had been brewing for some time for the European elections, with conversations very advanced between the Institutional Deputy Secretary of the PP, Esteban González Pons, and the CS MEP and general secretary of the party, Adrián Vázquez. But as the Catalans came forward, the strategy to seal a global agreement has been refocused.
The pact with Ciudadanos allows the national leadership a landing strip to change the head of the list. Alejandro Fernández was informed and did not object to this agreement, which is being directed from Madrid. But even if it allows a little more room for maneuver, it is still not easy for Feijóo, who has to convince the president of the PP in Catalonia to step aside. At the moment, Fernández’s entourage does not reveal whether he is willing to fight to stay. Feijóo also has to decide whether he will strike, and time is running out.
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