Alejandro Fernández will stand up to Feijóo at the PP congress to strengthen his position

Alejandro Fernández, president of the Partido Popular in Catalonia, has decided to raise his voice. His intention is to openly challenge Alberto Núñez Feijóo's strategy at the PP Congress that will be held on July 4 and 5 in Madrid. His move is neither improvised nor isolated. It is part of growing tension between several regional organizations and the national leadership located at Génova 13.

Núñez Feijóo, just as happened to Pablo Casado, doesn't trust Madrid President Isabel Díaz Ayuso. Casado felt weak in front of the Madrid President. According to a widely held thesis within the party, the baroness would sweep the former Galician president in a head-to-head in 2027 if PP doesn't reach La Moncloa. This fact has led the PP President to pardon Valencian President Carlos Mazón.

Mazón, badly burned by his management of the DANA, has now been restored. He has achieved this because he has promised to support the national leadership in its standoff against Madrid's PP. This organization is as influential as it is a minority at the national level. This minority status already forced Esperanza Aguirre not to confront Mariano Rajoy after her second defeat in 2008.

One Member, One Vote

At the center of the conflict is a model of internal participation that has caused deep divisions. The membership could support the "one member, one vote" system. This is the flag Isabel Díaz Ayuso waves in her crusade to "guarantee" the party's national leadership in 2027 if Núñez Feijóo crashes again.

Fernández has made this proposal his own. His position is not merely ideological; it is also strategic. As of today, he has overwhelming support from Catalan members. The enthusiasm he generates at Génova 13 is a different matter. In Madrid, they criticize his "lack of work," and also that he revealed in 2023 that Feijóo offered him a seat in Congress in exchange for leaving the presidency in Catalonia.

This standoff with Génova has intensified after the national leadership's insistence on promoting Daniel Sirera as the future leader of Catalan PP. Sirera, a councilor in Barcelona City Hall and close to Feijóo, is seen by many in Catalonia as a figure imposed from Madrid. Génova's pampering has been interpreted by Fernández's circle as an attempt to recentralize party control.

Meanwhile, Fernández has made it clear that he doesn't intend to give in to what he considers an unjustified and disloyal move. He made this clear in his book "Arde España," which was presented in Madrid. He did so without a single member of the national leadership present at the event.

Far from accepting a quiet withdrawal, Fernández has intensified his presence at public events, meetings with members, and media. His intention is to strengthen his profile as an autonomous leader and defender of the membership against the leadership. In this context, the PP Congress is not just a formality.

Bad Smell in Catalan PP

Internal tension in PP is not limited to a leadership issue. To this scenario is added the resurgence of a scandal that threatens to shake the party from its very roots: the so-called Operation Catalonia. It investigates the alleged collusion between the Ministry of the Interior, during the term of Jorge Fernández Díaz, and sectors of Catalan PP then led by Alicia Sánchez Camacho, to fabricate false evidence against separatist leaders. These maneuvers, allegedly coordinated with former commissioner José Manuel Villarejo, would have aimed to stop a pro-sovereignty majority in Parliament during the 2012 elections.

The latest leaked audios between Villarejo and Sánchez Camacho have exposed an alleged partisan use of state apparatuses to influence the political game in Catalonia. Fernández has been extremely critical of the alleged corruption of President Pedro Sánchez's government. But the past of Catalan PP forces him to act with caution. Although he wasn't part of that machinery, his status as Sánchez Camacho's successor puts him in a delicate position.

Alejandro Fernández Wants to Stop Being Interim

His defense of greater internal democracy and his resistance to attempts at imposition from Madrid position him as an uncomfortable actor for the current national leadership. With the PP Congress just around the corner, the confrontation has become a symbol of something deeper. That is the dispute between two visions of the party. One more centralized, vertical, and controlled from Génova. This could be defended by Núñez Feijóo, even though he always acted from Galicia as a loose cannon in front of Madrid.

But his federalism could be buried by his fear of opening a door for Isabel Díaz Ayuso to take control of the party in 2027.