PP self-destructs
National Partido Popular leader Pablo Casado is on the way out following party infighting
AN INTERNAL battle rapidly enveloped the Partido Popular (PP) over the last week and ultimately meant the end of the road for their current leader, Pablo Casado.
It was sparked last Wednesday when national newspapers El Mundo and El Confidencial published claims that people close to Madrid region president Isabel Díaz Ayuso were being spied on by means of an employee of a Madrid city hall public company.
This supposed investigation was related to contracts worth €1.5 million that were directly awarded by the regional government to the company Priviet Sportive S.L. to buy FFP2 and FFP3 face masks at the start of the pandemic, and which was connected to her brother, Tomás Díaz Ayuso.
The mayor of Madrid and national PP spokesman, José Luis Martínez-Almeida denied any order to spy on the regional president, but the party confirmed it had suspicions about the contracts.
Sra Ayuso claimed her own party was out to ‘destroy’ her ‘without evidence’, and Casado expressed his suspicions about alleged commission charged by her brother, Tomás, for a contract to buy face masks in China in April 2020.
Sra Díaz Ayuso admitted her brother charged €55,580 to a company hired by her government to buy the masks, for ‘services realised to obtain the material from China and its delivery to Madrid’, but insisted it was all ‘completely legal’ and had been declared.
She met with Sr Casado on Saturday but they failed to resolve their differences, since when there were growing calls from the party’s regional leaders and senior officials for him to step down.
Early this week several of Casado’s closest allies resigned and eventually, at Wednesday’s session of the parliament, he gave what was universally seen as a farewell address, although without actually making it official.
He defended his vision of politics as a ‘defence of the most noble principles and values, respect for adversaries and dedication to colleagues’.
Sr Casado told Socialist party (PSOE) Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez it was the responsibility of both their parties to ‘widen the centre ground’ so that they could win ‘without needing pacts with those who do not believe in Spain, or alliances with those who attack her’, such as farright party Vox and Basque separatists EH-Bildu.
Sr Sánchez wished him ‘the best in his personal life’, despite the confrontations they have had, and promised that he would not call an early general election.
National PP sources later confirmed that Casado would stay on as leader until the party’s conference on April 2-3, at which he would not stand for reelection.
They have asked the Galicia region president, Alberto Núñez Feijóo to stand, who is widely seen as the most widely supported candidate, but he said it was not up to him and he would not reveal his decision until the conference is officially announced.
The national PP executive unanimously agreed to name their speaker in the parliament, Cuca Gamorra as their general coordinator in the meantime, effectively side-lining Casado from the party’s day to day running.