Feijóo recruits profiles "moderate" while preparing to govern with Vox in the new electoral cycle

The incorporation of Sémper as spokesman for the electoral campaign has been the star announcement of the PP at the beginning of 2023. The former spokesman for the party in the Basque Parliament and leader in Gipuzkoa returns to the front line three years after resigning from all his charges and announce his departure due to disagreements with Pablo Casado’s project.

Sémper starred in several clashes with the then PP spokesperson in Congress, Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo. Now, with her sheltered in the last ranks of the popular bench, the irundarra has responded to Feijóo’s call to be precisely the face of the party at least until May, although everything indicates that his stay will be longer: Sémper will join the Management Committee of the PP, the executive body and closest to the president. The spokesman leaves a position at the Ernst & Young consultancy that, according to Feijóo, was much better paid than the remuneration he will now receive in the PP, although this information has not been revealed. In fact, the PP does not report how much Feijóo himself charges from the party coffers.

In his first press conference as spokesman, this Monday, the new leader went to the point. “The political tension is not reflected in Spanish society, which makes an effort, dialogues and collaborates. I aspire to contribute with the word, ”he said. “I’m not going to contribute to making more noise,” he added. “Feijóo has asked me the opposite: moderation and centrality where others only offer decibels; proposals versus insults,” he noted.

The two key words of his first appearance were “moderation” and “centrality”, adjectives that he imposed on himself and that leave no doubt as to what his role as spokesman for the PP will be: to offer a different image from the one that has been given up to now by the main spokesmen for the party, Cuca Gamarra and Elías Bendodo. Sémper had to respond precisely to a tweet from the Secretary General about the attempted coup in Brazil, who transitioned between disavowing Gamarra’s message and ironically stating that Lula “is not going to modify the Penal Code to reduce sentences.” those who assaulted the institutional buildings of Brasilia.

The comparison had already been made hours before by Feijóo himself in an interview on the network cope in which he left another sentence for the newspaper library, asked about the government formula in town halls and communities after May 28: “This type of coalitions are bad for the country and the coalitions between the PP and Vox, if they can be avoided, and of course I will try, I will avoid them”.

Then he pointed out that, in reality, “it does not depend” on him. And that, if necessary, she will agree with whoever she has to agree to achieve power. In fact, the Galician broke one of the mantras that the PP has repeated to exhaustion for decades: that he govern the most voted list. Feijóo opened the door at the Episcopal Conference station to seek agreements even if his party does not win the elections, which historically in Genoa was called “losers’ pacts” and which, in fact, was already launched by his predecessor in office, Pablo Casado. Isabel Díaz Ayuso or Alfonso Fernández Mañueco governed in 2019 after losing at the polls due to post-electoral agreements that included the extreme right.

From the PP they insist that their intention is to achieve a majority large enough not to depend on Vox, although Santiago Abascal’s party in a message on Twitter that only they can “with their presence in the Government, guarantee an alternative to Pedro Sanchez”.

An Abascal who is a friend of Sémper, as he himself acknowledged at the press conference this Monday. “We have known each other since we were 17 years old. We have seen everything. Our personal relationship is bomb-proof and I will continue to maintain it,” said the brand new spokesman, although he immediately distanced himself from the ultra political project: “What it represents is not what I want for my country.”

Asked specifically about the coalition between the PP and Vox that has led the extreme right to the vice presidency of Castilla y León, Sémper preferred not to answer.

De la Serna, for the program

Despite the attempts of the PP to separate from Vox and to fish in the cauldron of discontented socialist voters, even with nods to feminism against the trans law, the surveys indicate that the future mayors or regional presidents of the party will have to understand one way or another with Vox. Also Feijóo, unless the situation changes a lot between now and December.

The attempt by the new leadership to offer a less identity profile and more focused on the material problems of the Spaniards has not come to fruition. The vaunted economic recession has not arrived, inflation in Spain is among the lowest in the EU despite the omens and unemployment is falling. And the PP remains entrenched in the Judiciary after losing the pulse for controlling the Constitutional Court, a thread of coherence that unites all the presidents that the party has had since the refoundation led by José María Aznar.

For this reason, the signing of Sémper is joined by that of Íñigo de la Serna. Mayor of Santander for nine years and former Minister of Public Works under Mariano Rajoy, he left active politics after the motion of no confidence in June 2018 and went into the private sector. Among others, he signed for a company that had been awarded municipal contracts when he was mayor.

Since Feijóo assumed the leadership of the PP in April 2022, his has been one of the names that has sounded recurrently to return to the party’s organization chart. But the economic problems of the national leadership after the successive electoral hits of 2019 prevented some signings, including that of Sémper, which are now possible due to the loans on account of the presumable electoral results of this 2023.

De la Serna will be the coordinator of the electoral program for the May elections. He will do it in equal parts, although with very little publicity from the party, with Carmen Fúnez, who has already joined the National Executive Committee as head of the Electoral Action area.

The campaign team, which will be led by the general coordinator, Elías Bendodo, also includes prominent members of the current leadership, such as Miguel Tellado and Pedro Rollán. And other intermediate positions will have a relevant role: Ángel González from Málaga will be responsible for public events, set design and image, while the treasurer, Carmen Navarro, will be in charge of the budget and financing. The former mayor of Badalona, ​​Xabi García Albiol, will be the coordinator of the candidates.

The trident of incorporations is completed with Daniel Sirera, who had stepped aside as chief of staff of the president of the PP in the Valencian Community, Carlos Mazón, after holding different positions in the PP of Catalonia. Sirera (Badalona, ​​1957) chaired the Catalan Popular Party for a year on an interim basis between July 2007 and July 2008 after the resignation of Josep Piqué and the appointment of Alicia Sánchez Camacho as leader of the conservative party in Catalonia.

He was also a deputy in Parliament for 15 years (1995-2010) in which he came to preside over the parliamentary group. At the same time, he was a councilor in the consistory, senator by regional designation and advisor to the Consell de l’Audiovisual de Catalunya (CAC) between 2012 and 2022. Sirera is another allegedly moderate profile whose main mission will be to save the PP from a critical situation in Catalonia, where it was relegated to last position in the February 2021 elections with Vox quadrupling its parliamentarians and Ciudadanos achieving double.

On the night of May 28, calculators will replace intentions and speeches. And the profiles, moderate or hard, will have to justify the decisions made after counting the votes at the polls.