Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Alejandro Fernández met yesterday in Madrid to address the Catalan candidacy for 12-M, which is scheduled to be announced today. According to sources from the national leadership of the Popular Party, the meeting “served to share their vision of the current political context both in Catalonia and in Spain as a whole. During the course of it, the Catalan president has conveyed his absolute disposition to the party.
The national leadership of the Popular Party, which has a long internal debate about who should be the electoral poster in Catalonia, also reported that in the last hours of yesterday they were going to speed up consultations with the Catalan Popular Party to convey the decision to public opinion. . In this context of imminent outcome, Alejandro Fernández indicated on social networks that he had conveyed to Feijóo “his absolute disposition of him.” "As a candidate for the Generalitat," he continued, "or as a grassroots member, I will always help in everything I can so that the PP of Catalonia obtains the best possible result."
The indecision of the national leadership regarding the Catalan candidacy has been due, above all, to Feijóo's lack of harmony with the Catalan leader, due to the public considerations that he has made about some of the formation's strategies. In the months prior to the Catalan electoral call, a rapprochement was being attempted. But the electoral advance has caught the popular party on the wrong foot, who were also debating the formation in the medium term of a progressive turn towards the Catalan center. Hence the doubts about whether to maintain Alejandro Fernández's candidacy or proceed with a renewal. Various names have been put on the table as electoral posters, especially that of Dolors Montserrat, spokesperson for the European People's Party.
The PP had indicated that the election of the Catalan candidate, who depends by statute on the national leadership, would take place once the negotiation with Ciudadanos was concluded. Both formations sought an electoral integration that failed on Friday, and therefore the door was now open to the designation of number one in Catalonia. The Catalan PP had also expressed the need to clear up unknowns in order to get the pre-campaign off to a strong start. It has been almost two weeks since President Pere Aragonès announced the advance and election date, and the Catalan PP has gotten to work to debate the rest of the list, which is a matter within its competence. The main Catalan parties, except the popular Catalans, have designated their candidates and on the first weekend they already launched themselves into the political arena.
For this reason, yesterday morning, spokesperson Borja Sémper already announced that the decision would be made shortly and that the Catalan leaders would be consulted. But, in fact, this consultation has been going on for weeks and has been long and complex. There is a disparity in criteria not only in a purely strategic matter, but also in the internal organization of the party, and therefore in the impact of making any decision.
The PP had pending the holding of its congress in Catalonia, which had been left until after the European elections of 9-J. A design thought out by the national leadership with the idea that the regional elections would not take place at least until after the summer. For this reason, sectors of the party have considered that now was not the time to make hasty changes.
Aside from these considerations, Sémper analyzed in a Catalan key the Amnesty law, the other front opened by the PP in its offensive against the Government. The popular spokesperson assured that with it Spain is “attending the return to point zero, the beginning of the independence process” after the investiture agreement between the PSOE and Junts and ERC. “The rule of law and Catalan society deactivated the process, and Sánchez activates it again. “This is the sad reality we face today,” said Sémper, who downplayed the appeal presented by the PSC before the Constitutional Court, which the Spanish Executive has joined, against the popular legislative initiative (ILP) in favor of independence admitted for processing in Parliament.
