Feijóo grants full powers to Tellado and promotes the head of his think tank.
With the appointment of Madrid residents Alma Ezcurra—who led Reformismo21, the think tank created by Alberto Núñez Feijóo—as the new deputy secretary of sectoral coordination and Jaime de los Santos as head of education and equality, the PP president outlined this Thursday the executive with which he intends to leave the opposition and come to power. And he intends to do so with the help of his deputy Miguel Tellado, to whom he has given complete control so that, this time, he can move to the Moncloa Palace.
Three years after becoming president of the People's Party (PP), and two years after his disappointing victory over Pedro Sánchez at the polls, in which, with the addition of Vox, he fell four seats short of the investiture, the Galician politician has vowed to ensure that nothing goes wrong in the re-election.
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The most significant change is the appointment of Tellado, Feijóo's faithful squire in the Xunta, as the party's number two. The new general secretary – who will also take over the organisational functions previously exercised by Carmen Fúnez, who will be in charge of health and social policies – will review the party with the ironclad ideological discipline he has displayed as PP spokesperson in Congress, where the fierce León MP Ester Muñoz will take over.
The PP's current spokesperson in Congress also assumes Carmen Fúnez's responsibilities.Plenipotentiary Tellado will thus have "sole command," as announced in Genoa, for the management of internal affairs, relations with the autonomous regions, and the design and planning of campaigns.
This move, which aims to "electoralize" the PP, means that Cuca Gamarra, a party member who had previously held top positions under Mariano Rajoy and Pablo Casado, has been demoted one notch in the leadership, but without leaving the management committee, where she will manage the justice department.
In short, it will be Tellado, along with the rest of Feijóo's Galician core, who will take the reins of the PP in the final game, which will be played all or nothing when Sánchez—sooner rather than later, they hope—calls elections. A gamble.
Representative Jaime de los Santos will also join Feijóo's new executive committee.Getting here hasn't been easy for Feijóo. He's been paving the way, with the sudden convening of the extraordinary congress serving as the necessary milestone for him to impose his views, both internally, through the reform of the statutes and the revision of a primary system he never liked and which he has managed to avoid being challenged by the Madrid leader, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and externally, as the political committee, led by the Andalusian Juanma Moreno, leaves the future strategy of pacts with the far right and nationalist forces up in the air.
Read alsoIt's in this context that Tellado issued a warning yesterday to Junts and the PNV for their "complicit" support of the government: "They will assume responsibility for what they are doing at the polls, I have no doubt," the PP leader predicted on Telecinco. "That's their problem; history will judge them."
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