Feijóo opens an internal front within the PP at Sánchez's worst moment.

In politics, time and calendar control are especially important. That's why it seems strange that PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo has decided to bring forward the party's ordinary congress to July, just at a time when Pedro Sánchez's government is under pressure and beginning to show signs of wear and tear following the blackout and internal tensions with its members. Feijóo's excuse is that he wants to be prepared in case there's an early election after the summer, but the reality is that the PP now faces a three-month period in which the spotlight will be on them and not on Sánchez's executive, which greeted the news with undisguised satisfaction.

And although Feijóo's intention is to strengthen the party's leadership and his own leadership, bringing forward the congress and admitting that there will be changes means admitting that the current team isn't doing its job properly. As if that weren't enough, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the main internal opponent of Feijóoism, said this Monday morning that bringing forward the congress was necessary "to put an end to the rumblings" surrounding Feijóo's leadership. In other words, Ayuso herself has made it clear that within the party, especially in Madrid, there are many doubts surrounding the Galician politician's leadership.

From now on, Feijóo will face several internal battles. The first is over appointments, in which both Ayuso and the Andalusian Juanma Moreno Bonilla will want to influence. One of the people singled out by the Madrid PP is precisely Elías Bendodo, Moreno's protégé who is now the party's general coordinator. But there are also other profiles who are seen as too moderate in Puerta del Sol, such as the party's general secretary, Cuca Gamarra, who in the past had been close to Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría and later became close to Pablo Casado.

In addition to the fight over names, however, it is the ideological debate that could bring to light the fractures currently shaking the party. The PP has not approved an ideological report since 2017, and now it will have to take a position on thorny issues such as abortion, euthanasia, gender-based violence, the welfare state, Spain's territorial organization, and co-official languages. We will have to pay special attention to what is said about Catalonia. This is where the greatest clash is expected to occur between the most centrist sectors of the party, the most conservative, and also the ultra-liberal and Spanish nationalists led by the Ayuso-Aznar duo.

And throughout the congress, there will be two big elephants in the room. The first is the strategy to pursue with Vox once it has been proven that it is not a reliable party to govern within, as has been made clear by its withdrawal from the regional governments, and that it is only interested in dragging the PP towards its far-right positions. And the second is the figure of Carlos Mazón, a Valencian president who has become the party's Achilles' heel due to his disastrous management of the DANA (National Anti-Drug Administration), but whom Feijóo cannot find a way to get rid of. In short, a congress designed to strengthen him may end up doing the opposite.