Aznar, in the PSOE: "If you make deals with criminals, don't be surprised if you end up in prison."

MadridWhile the PSOE is renewing its leadership to survive the Santos Cerdán case, the PP is using him at the party congress, which started this Friday, to predict a change of course. Alberto Núñez Feijóo has worked hard until the very last moment, with the transaction of amendments, to avoid any crack that could tarnish the image of unity he wants to project at a conclave where he faces no internal opposition. The alleged corruption cases of the Socialists have contributed to this closing of ranks, which on the first day of the PP congress was staged with the interventions of former PP presidents of the Spanish government, José María Aznar and Mariano Rajoy, who appeared together on stage at the Ifema Madrid trade fair pavilion. However, the differences between them were quick to surface. As usual, the harshest speech was Aznar's, who warned the PSOE that the price of coming to power by making pacts with the pro-independence parties, which he called "criminals," would also mean ending up in prison. "If you negotiate budgets in a prison, you associate with inmates and negotiate an amnesty with criminals; don't be surprised if you end up in prison because that's your environment," he asserted days after the former number three of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) was admitted to the Soto del Real penitentiary center for the alleged commissionsil plot.

"Change is urgent in Spain and it means that criminals stop being in offices legislating and go to prison," insisted the president of the FAES foundation, who asserted that "for the Sánchez regime, there is no possible reintegration." Aznar predicted that "there will not be enough blood vessels for so many scorched souls." After Aznar's intervention, it was Rajoy's turn, who also focused much of his speech on attacking Sánchez's pacts with the independence movement. According to the former Spanish president, "the worst corruption" of the Socialists was the amnesty law, and the origin of all their evils was the motion of censure that evicted him from the Moncloa Palace. "It was the first act of Frankenstein and of all the institutional and moral deterioration we see now. They tried to mask with a ruling [in the PP's Gürtel case] what was simply the story of boundless ambition," he asserted. Rajoy has used the Cerdán case to minimize and twist the narrative about the corruption cases surrounding his administration. "Some of us act against corruption, and others do so against judges, prosecutors, and the Civil Guard," the former president said, ignoring the scope of the Gürtel or Kitchen cases. "When we had problems, we didn't shout 'and you more,'" he defended himself.

Rajoy, on the other hand, criticized the fact that on the left, "anything goes because the only important thing is that the right doesn't come," and warned Feijóo that "the change promised by the PP cannot be a desire for revenge or a new Sanchismo with the PP logo." "We have never been extremists. We are common sense, moderation, and respect. It's about being what we have always been," he prescribed. Aznar, who embodies the other soul of the party and pushes Feijóo toward toughness with his proclamations, opined that "it's not about restarting the party," but rather about "laying the foundations to restart constitutional coexistence in Spain." "In the next clash, we will be playing for more than the continuity of a disastrous government; we will be playing for the historical continuity of our nation," he proclaimed in a speech that, despite the image of unity, exposed the two souls of the Popular Party.

Feijóo, who acts as a bridge and constantly balances between the two sensitivities within the PP, has asserted that both are his "advisors" and affirmed that he "has taken good note of the lesson" he learned in 2023, that winning elections does not guarantee governing precisely because he lacks four votes, which for now he lacks four votes today. However, the harshness of Aznar's speech toward the independence movement also highlights the difficulties Feijóo faces in allying himself in the future with parties like Junts, even though he has sought to leave the door open to this option by toning down the harshness of the amendment by the leader of the Catalan PP, Alejandro Fernández, who sought to close it with it.