An 'ayuser' takes charge of the PP youth wing

MadridHalf a year ago, in full earthquake in the PSOE due to the trickle of alleged cases of sexual harassment –as in the one pointed out by Paco Salazar, former high-ranking official of Moncloa–, the New Generations of the PP of Madrid set up a "purple point" on Ferraz street, in front of the socialist headquarters, to warn of the "danger" for women that they consider the party of Pedro Sánchez to represent. The provocative action against the PSOE, disseminated on the social networks of the Madrid popular youth, is one of the "great achievements" that Isabel Díaz Ayuso's team highlights from the stage of Ignacio Dancausa as leader of the youth organization in the region. With this background, of having given "battles with energy" against the left and from a "street presence without complexes", this 25-year-old from Madrid will take the reins of the national New Generations of the PP this Saturday, in a calm congress –there is only one unified candidacy– taking place in Valladolid.

Dancausa is joining Alberto Núñez Feijóo's team from now on. The general secretary of the Madrid PP, Alfonso Serrano, who has worked closely with her for the last three and a half years – since Dancausa was elected president of Nuevas Generaciones de Madrid in November 2022 –, describes her style as a "mix of bravery, recklessness, and determination". Serrano made these statements at Dancausa's final campaign event this Tuesday at a cultural center in northern Madrid, where Feijóo's number 2, Miguel Tellado, also spoke to welcome to Génova a "natural leader" who faces the challenge of attracting young voters – an age group in which Vox is beating them.

The new leadership of Nuevas Generaciones represents a change in style compared to the previous stage of Bea Fanjul, a 34-year-old Basque deputy in Congress, who has had a more institutionalized and less aggressive profile against the left. For years, since her university days at the Complutense University of Madrid, Dancausa has been focused on fighting the "cultural battle", a concept inherent to the rise of the far-right and that Ayuso has also embraced. "I am an ayuser and I will say it with great pride for Spain," she claimed at the same event. From Génova they embrace this Ayuso-like character, which they trust will energize and give "a new boost" to a youth organization that for decades has been a breeding ground for future party leaders – Ayuso herself, as well as Juanma Moreno, the Andalusian president, who led them throughout Spain, have passed through Nuevas Generaciones. Juanma Moreno, the Andalusian president, who led them throughout Spain.

The acquisition strategy

"You have the mission to channel the healthy indignation of young people towards the best political project for Spain, which is that of the PP," Tellado told Dancausa and her team three days before her official election. The new leader of the popular youth has set, as the first pillar of her strategy, to multiply the impact of New Generations on social networks. "I want you to be influencers of the ideas of freedom," she told her fellow party members, who are between 16 and 30 years old. The new leadership of the PP youth intends for both young regional and provincial leaders and grassroots militants to become a "coordinated network of content creators" and to seek new affiliates "as if the world were about to end".

"There will be no young person who does not know the project," Dancausa predicted. Furthermore, she assured that she will carry out "great actions in the street" and also at the university, another of the pillars of her project, since they intend to "be present on all campuses in Spain". "We cannot allow others to occupy the space that corresponds to us," she said in view of the penetration of other options linked to the extreme right. Beyond recruitment, it will also be necessary to see the organic impact that an influencer like Dancausa may have in shifting the discourse and methods of the national PP to the right.

"Unity" after the crisis

The congress that will culminate this Saturday also means turning the page on the crisis that the organization experienced in March of this year with the resignation of the former number 2 of Noves Generacions, Carlo Angrisano Girauta, who left his post and asked for votes for Vox. Génova decided to convene the Noves Generacions congress, pending for more than a year, just after the Andalusian elections with the aim of facing the Spanish elections with strength and organic tranquility –it was announced at the same time as the congress of the Catalan PP–. From both events, the popular ones extract an image of "unity". Besides Dancausa, the leader of Noves Generacions of Murcia, Antonio Landáburu, had obtained the necessary endorsements, but he has finally integrated into the candidacy of the man from Madrid as his number 2. Both those involved and Génova assure that it was a decision of the candidates, without any imposition so that they all row in the same direction.