The tentacles of Ayuusism in Genoa

MadridThere's no controversy with Pedro Sánchez in which Alberto Núñez Feijóo doesn't have to share the spotlight with Isabel Díaz Ayuso when it comes to running for president of the Spanish government. Unlike the rest of the male members of the PP, the Madrid president constantly sets her profile in state politics. So much so that in the spontaneous responses collected in the monthly barometers of the Center for Sociological Research (CIS), Ayuso's name appears—and not that of other regional presidents of the PP—as one of the preferred options to be the next president of the Spanish government. In the latest barometer, of the 5% of the PP 2023 party, they chose her and not Feijóo, for whom 39% are betting. This imprint of the leader of the Madrid Popular Party on public opinion is one of the factors that often means that Ayuso's opinion ends up setting the pace in Génova.

This is what happened this week with the positioning on Gaza.The state leadership of the PP has adapted to the hard line– and this is what had already happened with other issues such as the debt forgiveness of part of the regional liquidity fund (FLA) –Madrid's outright rejection has pushed the PP to form a united front against the Spanish government's offer, even though other popular communities would welcome the waiver. Faced with Ayuso's challenges to Feijóo, the PP leader has opted not to confront and avoid a clash. with a possible internal opponent who has already demonstrated that he has enough power—both organic and media-based—to unseat someone from the party presidency, as happened with Pablo Casado in 2022. At that time, when Feijóo took the reins of the PP, with that recent internal challenge led by Madrid, he designed a first state leadership more inclined towards the. Andalusians close to Juanma Moreno, the greatest exponent of the other soul of the party, as opposed to that embodied by Ayuso, had a very significant influence.

However, at the last PP congress held in early July, Ayuso gained influence within the party's leadership. Feijóo's first nod to Ayusoism was to appoint his right-hand man in the Madrid PP, Alfonso Serrano, as the main person responsible for organizing the conclave, held in the Spanish capital. The location—the previous one was in Seville—the hardened discourse of the ideology to compete with Vox, as well as its format—with references to "I like fruit"– already hinted at Feijóo's approach to the thesis and methods of Ayusoism. Among the new additions to the PP leadership are two deputy secretaries of the Madrid PP. One of them, MEP Alma Ezcurra, is especially relevant to Génova's direction due to her role as sector coordinator. Of note is the fact that Ezcurra has added Rafa Núñez, who is part of Ayuso's inner circle, to her team as migration coordinator.

Núñez is a member of the Madrid Assembly, and in 2022, Ayuso appointed him as coordinator of the strategy committee to ideologically restructure the Madrid PP. He also has ties to Vox. As Santiago Abascal has acknowledged, it was Núñez who suggested the party's name to him when they were designing the far-right brand, and he was also head of communications for a foundation, Denaes, affiliated with Vox. Genoa also announced this week a new addition to Ayuso's entourage. This is Madrid's Minister of Economy and Finance, Rocío Albert, one of the most visible faces of the party. the stand taken by the Spanish government against the forgiveness and in the crusade against one-off funding for Catalonia. She will be the coordinator of SMEs, self-employed workers, and innovation in the deputy secretary of the Treasury, led by the Andalusian Juan Bravo.

Moving up another notch in the organizational structure, the other deputy secretary of the Madrid PP is Jaime de los Santos, responsible for Education and Equality. De los Santos was one of Feijóo's hosts at the Madrid PP's start-of-year event, held in his hometown, the municipality of Arganda del Rey. The PP leader chose to surround himself with the Madrid president and her supporters instead of attending the opening ceremony of the judicial year as a form of protest against the presence of the State Attorney General, who is one of the Madrid president's antagonists due to the investigation into her partner for tax fraud. A gesture that was further evidence of the tentacles Ayuso has managed to deploy in Génova.