Just one day after Alberto Núñez Feijóo has already emerged the first of the internal debates: that of the primaries to choose the president of the party. This is an issue that looks at the future, because in the next congress the leader will be chosen according to the current rules, a double round system in which the bases and then the compromisarios first vote. But the discussion has transcendence because it affects the internal democracy of the PP and because it can have a lot of impact on the post-feióo stage, when it arrives. The Galician politician confirmed on Tuesday that he wants to “update” the primary model, along the same line that the president of Andalusia, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, pointed out one of his main internal allies. The president of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, prefers not to reveal her position yet in this debate. Madrid PP sources defend that it is an issue to settle from inside doors.
Feijóo confirmed his intention for the PP leader on Tuesday, this is a “Gordian knot” that must be resolved in this conclave, so the leader is committed to “update” the statutes of the PP to modify it. “It is a bit weird to explain that all militants can vote and that then that can be corrected by the vote of the compromisarios,” he argued on Tuesday. “We have to solve that contradiction.”
The Galician politician was always against the primary model in force in the PP. As soon as he reached the presidency of the party, in 2022, he defended again that it would be necessary to modify it so that what happened in 2018 was not repeated. That year, in the Congress before his own, after Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría had won among the militancy. Casado won in the vote of the delegates because he received the support of María Dolores de Cospedal, who did not pass the first filter of the militancy.
Feijóo’s model, which he explained other occasions, is based on the election of the president “through compromisaries.” The militants choose these delegates, who are the responsibility of choosing among the candidates. This system eliminates the current double vote of the bases and compromisarios, and the direct suffrage of militants to choose the candidates. “I think the primary assemblies need adjustments,” Feijóo explained in an interview in The world In March 2022. “I believe in primary through compromisaries, not in the primary assemblies. The militants choose the compromisarios, and they have the responsibility of choosing among the candidates.”
In the most direct environment of the leader they avoid giving details about how that alternative system would be landed, on the argument that he does not want to condition with his opinion to those who receive the commission of preparing the presentation of the statutes.
Feijóo has a weight ally in this debate. He is the president of Andalusia, friend and name to which many popular places like Delfín, who also questions the double turn of the current system. “I am in favor of reviewing it,” said Moreno Bonilla on Tuesday “was a consequence of a certain political moment, where we had the pressure of a new party, citizens, and we copied a model that was not of our political culture and that has clear defects,” he recalled. “Notice, in the previous Congress to Feijóo, the militants voted and mostly opted for an option. And then, in the second phase, with the compromisarios, those who had been defeated joined and won the Congress. Does it make sense?”, Moreno Bonilla asked, putting the same example as Feijóo, that of the congress that married.
The Andalusian leader believes that “an option” would be “to eliminate the second round”, but leaves the formula open and argues that there are “many options” to study.
The coincidence of Feijóo and Moreno Bonilla in questioning the double turn is important because it prefers a balance of forces for Congress, since it is the leader and president of the most numerous delegation, La Andaluza. But also, nobody escapes in the PP that Moreno Bonilla is the baron closest to Feijóo and one of the best located in the future to succeed him.
The reform of the primary system to eliminate the double turn of vote of compromisarios and militancy could harm the leader who also appears in the pools of the future succession career, although that moment is still distant because no one in the PP doubts that Feijóo will revalidate his position. The alternative referent to Feijóo and Moreno Bonilla is Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the president of the Community of Madrid, who at the moment prefers not to tertiary in the debate of the primaries, but summons to discuss it within the framework of the Congress. “What happens in the PP stays in the PP, as in Las Vegas,” she ironized on Tuesday. “Another thing is the presentations and the sharing of ideas for the party, which is always good to do it,” he riveted, summoning the discussion to organic channels.
This debate was surprised to the PP in Madrid, which he considers “prematurely when he has not yet been convened for formally”, explain sources from the popular Madrid. “There are weeks of debate ahead. The PP of Madrid will not go into concrete debates until the time comes. And the debates have their forums and their channels.”
Ayuso, insist on the PP in Madrid, is not in succession, has been very clear in his support for Feijóo, and also the leader of the PP will reach the Moncloa, so there are many years left to open that melon. “The president is not thinking right now in the post Feijóo,” these sources affect, which are: “Is there anyone who is thinking about the succession?”
