The Catalan PP will hold its congress on June 27, four years late

Barcelona / MadridAfter four years frozen, the Catalan PP will have its congress. Finally, the state leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, announced this Monday in a closed-door intervention that the party will hold its regional congress on June 27. The forecast is to ratify the leadership of Alejandro Fernández, who, after strong tug-of-war with the Galician leader, has established a peaceful relationship with the state leadership, especially thanks to the role of the general secretary, Miguel Tellado.

an intensification of the Galician leader's presencean intensification of the Galician leader's presence.

Several Catalan popular sources point out that the objective is to "strengthen Alejandro" and they foresee a calm congress. "Calm" is one of the realities that has most changed the formation, which has opted for an internal distribution of roles to avoid the traditional confrontation between families, whether due to ideological or personal affinity. Thus, the general secretary, Santi Rodríguez, has been more involved with the party and the territory, an area in which the parliamentary spokesperson, Juan Fernández, has also helped him, and Alejandro Fernández has been in charge of the ideological battle, with a climate of serenity one year after his controversial book – in which he attacked the state leadership – and despite the controversial amendment to the state congress last year to veto agreements with Junts – which ended in an agreement.

In any case, the call for the congress has been a constant question since the PP obtained 15 deputies in the Catalan elections of May 12, but the official response from the spokesmen was that they were focused on the different electoral processes in Spain and that there would be no Catalan congress until Feijóo became Spanish president. Now the change has been made concrete and the argument is, also, electoral.

Since 2022

The regional board will have to formally validate the date, even though it is already a reality, and the location where it will be held is yet to be known. The fact is that Alejandro Fernández became president of the party in Catalonia on November 10, 2018, and the relevant congress should have already been held in 2022. But the serious internal crisis due to the disastrous electoral results brought the formation to the brink of disappearance in Catalonia, and Feijóo's subsequent arrival at the national leadership multiplied the confrontations between Madrid and Catalonia. Fernández responded by firmly opposing any kind of negotiation with Junts or any potential pacts for investiture, not even within the framework of the Constitution.

In the 2024 elections, Fernández was ratified as candidate for the Generalitat at the last minute, after Feijóo explored various possibilities, such as MEP Dolors Montserrat or a star signing that was frustrated. The coexistence was not easy and also stemmed from divergent diagnoses: while Feijóo insisted on a more regionalist-leaning Catalan PP, as is the case with the party in Galicia, Fernández has always opted for a frontal clash with Catalan nationalism, in the style of Aleix Vidal-Quadras, one of his role models.

Even the issue of speaking more Catalan has always been an idea that Feijóo has repeatedly reiterated through internal channels, but Fernández and several leaders have followed their own path. Despite the internal peace Fernández has achieved, the truth is that the organizational chaos has continued: without meetings of the steering committee, but also because several members of the leadership, such as Llanos de Luna or Isaac Martín Salvà, have disappeared from internal organizational life.

The new roadmap also aims to streamline organizational life, which already suffered a upheaval after the electoral blow of 2021 and the resignation of Fernández's close collaborators such as Daniel Serrano and Albert Fernández Saltiveri due to criminal accusations that have not resulted in any conviction. Currently, the main internal problem in the Catalan PP is the struggle in Barcelona between Alberto Fernández Díaz's sector and the city leader, Daniel Sirera, an issue that is not planned to be addressed at the congress.

New Generations, too

After the mess in the PP youth wing, Noves Generacions – where its president, Carlo Agrisano, resigned and asked for votes for Vox – will also hold a congress on July 11. Agrisano's move internally disconcerted, although being the nephew of Vox MEP Juan Carlos Girauta made the move a natural step. Even more so when his professional collaboration with the PP had come to an end.