It was clumsy. The reflection is widespread in the PP, which understands what Alberto Núñez Feijóo said about pardons in an informal meeting with journalists during the Galician campaign, but closes ranks with its leader, starting with the most representative barons, such as the Andalusian Juan Manuel Moreno and Isabel Díaz Ayuso from Madrid.
The possibility of a pardon for Carles Puigdemont if certain conditions are met, including renouncing independence, has been an earthquake within the PP, more due to the circumstances in which they occur than due to the content of the statements. One week before the elections, it is introducing an element that distorts what everyone agrees was an impeccable campaign that could guarantee the absolute majority of the PP. The shadow of what happened in the general elections once again hovered over Génova Street, when everything indicates that the last week before 23-J was disastrous for the expectations raised.
However, the fact that Feijóo and Alfonso Rueda are campaigning separately, and that the Galician PP has focused on the rural world, leads the PP to hope that the consequences of these statements will not lead to an electoral setback. This Monday, the leader of the PP already stated at an event in Marín, Pontevedra, that “I do not and will not accept” amnesty or pardons for independentists.
To minimize these consequences, the barons of the PP with Juanma Moreno and Díaz Ayuso at the head, but also the Valencian Carlos Mazón, have come out to close ranks with Feijóo, in an attempt to minimize these consequences, and with an argument repeated by all the PP leaders this Monday. They all assured that the PP's position has not changed either on the pardons, nor on the amnesty, nor on the relations of the Catalan independence movement with Russia, which at the request of the PP the European Parliament has asked to be investigated. For the PP there is “a PSOE campaign” to try to justify its pacts with the independentists and amnesty Puigdemont.
The Andalusian president, Juanma Moreno, stressed that the leader of the PP “has always flatly refused amnesty and pardon” and that “there is no doubt about it.” The Andalusian president pointed out that “the only one who has given in to blackmail has been Mr. Sánchez” and assured that “if Feijóo wanted an amnesty and a pardon, he would be president of the government of Spain now,” because that is what the former Catalan president is asking for. . And he added that the leader of the PP “has flatly refused to do so, always.”
Moreno made it clear that “we neither want an amnesty, nor do we want pardons, nor do we want Puigdemont to leave unscathed after what he did,” and expressed his surprise at “the tandem” that the PSOE and Vox have formed to “try to erode the options of the PP in the Galician elections.” A fact that, in his opinion, demonstrates “the desperation” of both parties, to the point of agreeing on the sole objective of “taking down the PP at any price.”
In similar terms, the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, denied that there was a change in Feijóo's position either regarding the pardons or the amnesty, and blamed the PSOE for “clutching on to burning nails” when trying to interpret some words what the PP leader said in a way that attempts to justify what Sánchez has done.
In an interview on Telecinco, the Madrid president stressed that the PP “has not talked about any type of pardons” and added that “what she is supposed to have said is that a series of situations would have to occur that are not happening.” and pointed directly at the Government. “What the entire synchronized Moncloa team is trying to do” is to accuse the PP of its pacts to remain in the Government, pacts that in their opinion represent “pure and hard corruption.”
In his personal capacity, Ayuso assured that he is not in favor of “any pardon or amnesty for someone who not only has not repented, but would do it again above all else. Not even water.”
The Valencian president, Carlos Mazón, also insisted that the PP's position has not changed, and has been and is unanimous: "No to amnesty, no to pardons and no to blackmail." From here, according to Mazón, “there are some who are wanting to take advantage of the fact that there are Galician elections around the corner to torpedo everything.”
Although the controversy is centering the electoral campaign, the PP does not want attention to be diverted from other issues, and this Monday it announced that it will file a complaint against the State Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, for the appointment of its predecessor, Dolores Delgado, which the Supreme Court, administratively, has already considered an “abuse of power”, and which in the opinion of the PP may constitute a crime of prevarication.
