Ayuso and Alejandro Fernández against Feijóo

BarcelonaAlberto Núñez Feijóo has opened a rift in his own party with the adoption of the principle of "national priority", an emblem of the far-right Le Penist movement that has been spreading across the rest of Europe, but which the PP had never embraced. What's more, it had vehemently rejected it.

In an interview with el ARA published on March 30, that is, less than a month ago, the president of the PP of Catalonia, Alejandro Fernández, a person ideologically very close to Isabel Díaz Ayuso, said the following when asked about his differences with Vox: "What they call the principle of national priority, we do not defend it. We understand that, at the moment when a person is working and is legal, you cannot deny them social assistance due to their origin. Because what's next? Starting to analyze surnames or consanguinity?".

Two weeks after this interview, the PP signed an agreement with Vox to govern Extremadura which stated that the granting of aid and access to public housing would be inspired by the "principle of national priority" applying to people who "prove lasting, real, and verifiable residency". Automatically, Isabel Díaz Ayuso expressed her doubts. And Juanma Moreno Bonilla's smile froze. The PP has tried to downplay the scope of the agreement since then, but the damage is already done.

One only needs to read the editorial in El Mundo on Friday to see how the internal rift in the PP is deeper than Alberto Núñez Feijóo might have suspected when he decided to give the green light to the text of the agreement. "The PP is allowing itself to be dragged by Vox into a dangerous territory of dehumanization of the immigrant" in a text unequivocally titled: "National priority" is a mistake". El Mundo, needless to say, is the mouthpiece of ayusismo. And ayusismo draws from two sources: economic liberalism and confrontation with Catalan and Basque nationalisms. For Alejandro Fernández, "national priority" represents what he has fought against all his life in Catalonia.

Unintentionally and unforeseeably, and in the umpteenth miscalculation by the Galician politician, Feijóo has brought to the surface a division that is not between a hard wing and a moderate wing, but is purely ideological, between liberals and conservatives (or reactionaries), and therefore more serious. And assuming "national priority" without prior debate, likely at a congress, and without having agreed it with the main regional leaders, is a leap into the void that could turn out very badly for him. And, of course, a great strategic victory for the far right.

The details

The President of the Parliament, Josep Rull, visited Jordi Pujol during Sant Jordi's Day and gave him a book and a rose. The book was La Catalunya rebel, which has as its subtitle “The trial of Francesc Macià and the protagonists of the Prats de Molló events”, now that it has been a century since the trial. The introduction to the volume is by Agustí Colomines and the prologue by Carles Puigdemont.

Parties and entities like Juristes Valencians have been fighting for years for the recovery of Valencian civil law which, unlike Catalan, has no legal recognition. A 2017 report made it clear that the best way is to promote a reform of the Constitution, but the PP has decided to bury the claim again. How? By creating a study commission on the matter.