Pablo Casado: a failure?
This is the chronicle of an hour that will change the history of Spain. Sunday, 20 February 2022. 11:45 in the morning. Early spring sunshine. About 17 degrees centigrade. The almond trees have burst into bloom. Breakfast in the renovated Café Comercial. Too many good memories of the past. I head down Calle Sagasta to the Alonso Martínez metro station. And in two minutes, Genova, 13. The National Police have taken the left pavement. I count up to six units. The first passers-by take the street and force the cars to turn in front of the headquarters. The drivers are natural. Nobody protests. They turn and return to the Glorieta de Bilbao. Just a few dozen people. On arriving at the popular diocese, the people had already gathered in community. All against Casado, Egea, Casero Almeida and Carromero.
The popular protesters continue to arrive in the adjacent streets. In Zurbano, a hundred; in Génova, towards Plaza de Colón, a thousand and a half. And before reaching the PP's headquarters, no more than five hundred citizens. All addicted to the cause, all pissed off. Insults are a good way of redeeming oneself against rage and impotence. They insult like never before, like no one else and with cadence. The demonstrators are clear that the culprits have names and surnames. They are not organised, but they are more united by their support for Isabel III of Spain than by their hatred for the leadership of the conservative party. They call for the resignation of Casado and Egea preferably and accuse them of being traitors, shameless, inept, agents of Sánchez and demand that they leave as soon as possible.
The main door is shut tight. Not a soul on the seventh floor. They are neither here nor expected. The anger rises in decibels by the minute. The banners have been made at home with more will than talent. If the leadership does not listen to this clamour, it will have carved its own grave. The message is clear: Isabel is salvation, freedom, the future. The disenchanted PP are talking about an extraordinary Congress -without Casado-García Egea- and are betting everything on a single card: Díaz Ayuso to preside the PP Madrid and to La Moncloa on her wings, alone or in the company of VOX. They are unaware of the power of the apparatus.
They also distrust the spokesman of the barons Alberto Núñez Feijóo. They want a Constituent Convention to laminate the leadership team. And they only agree that the brand of the future should carry four signatures: Ayuso, of course; Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, Esperanza Aguirre and Juanma Moreno.
The two thousand angry souls who attended the meeting against the "Genoese" demanded to clean the party of useless and useless people, of surrendering to Moncloa - many confessed that Casero's vote lent to the PSOE in the labour reform was the price of the PP's submission "hunted" in the lies -, and they will not forgive the Carromeros chiquilicuatres.
At this spontaneous street meeting, nobody opposed Mañueco's agreement with VOX in line with IDA's thesis: "I prefer to agree with Ortega Lara's party than with the hijackers of O.L.". Everybody understands that. Nobody understands that if Ayuso is the most responsible for the PP's triumph after the elections of March 4th, she is accused of corruption, without proof, by the president of her party. The withdrawal of the dossier for disloyalty and lack of exemplary behaviour is not going to calm tempers within the PP. On the contrary, this minority demonstration, if we take into account the militants, invites us to think that they do not want the split, but they will not allow any more punishment of the Madrid president who has given them hope until the municipal and autonomous elections of May 2023
The popular leader who promised so much after the Congress in front of Soraya has turned into a politician of the salon. Not a single idea since his appointment. Delegating to the Count-Duke of Egea has been a big mistake. Killing Cayetana was an omen. Politically assassinating the Madrid leader is the symptom of a weak man who delegates all responsibilities to the secretary general. Why have we come this far? Because of the pathological jealousy of mediocrity installed in the bosses of the ignoble plant. Why hasn't the regional PP Congress been activated with 38 managers armoured by Pío-García Escudero and Carromero himself? So that the July delegates to the National Congress would not ruin the triumphant career of the lethal duo in the two key posts; the Presidency and the General Secretariat.
Few interviews were more shameful than the one Pablo gave to Herrera on Cope. Accusing without evidence with Treasury ammunition with the unpresentable threatening letter that... "when I am President of the Government of Spain...".
These immoral guys have to go as soon as possible. The centre right and the other right to the right enjoyed an absolute majority as demonstrated in Castilla y León. Forty-eight hours later, Casado and his gang dynamited that necessary change to rid us of the tenant of La Moncloa. The jealousy of the mediocre has breathed nuclear energy into Sánchez and his fellow travellers (Bildu, ERC, CUP and UP) until 2030.
The leadership of the first opposition party must self-immolate for the good of Spain. These are major mistakes. Every second that passes without listening to those gathered in the damned national headquarters - the corruption of Bárcenas continues to invade the building that nobody wants to buy - will be months of assisted breathing for the PSOE that lost the elections, the most corrupt for the EREs, for the European Funds and with Marlaska laundering the murderers of ETA. Thanks to Casado, the PP is today Ferraz's crutch, and it lives so comfortably in opposition! With Casero's nitroglycerine vote and the fireman bullfighter show since Thursday, Sánchez is entrenched in the Palacio de la Carretera de La Coruña until at least the next decade. You can be imbeciles, more useless and like these... Still Casado will kneel begging for clemency before the bar thug... to be pardoned.
Pablo Casado is dead and he knows it. Politically and parliamentarily. With what moral strength is he going to oppose Sancheznstein's outrages on Wednesdays after being vilified by his own militants and voters. He does not deserve a vote from decent people. The street does not want him. Neither him nor the haughty olive grower and Murcian sergeant Teodoro García Egea. Either the president takes urgent solutions in the next few hours... or the PP will bleed to death in just a few weeks. It has already lost 20 seats in the last seven days.
At the end of the Sunday meeting in the heart of Madrid I chat with my friend Santi Gómez and a conservative family from Burgos. They have a flat in Madrid and have travelled to attend this meeting of the disinherited of fortune. They agree that if there is no extraordinary congress there is no future for this PP. They fear a split. I know that Puerta del Sol remains loyal to the acronym of the seagull. And that they will not accept blackmail. Isabel, president of the national PP! and Isabel, president of the Government! were two of the most chanted slogans. Casado has played at being Rivera and has logically failed. Sánchez Pérez-Castejón, the smartest of the class, always wins. The legislature is already assured if Don Pablo leads his troops on the other side of the blue bench.
Those gathered on this spring Sunday in front of the solitary headquarters of Génova 13, were people of advanced years, with experience and who loved Spain. People disappointed by these political opportunists. Beyond the disappointment, the venting of insults and the expectation that only Ayuso can save them, a curious anecdote could not be missing. The protagonist was Rex, a huge dog owned by Manuel de Benito. They had arrived by metro from Manuel Becerra. Manuel confessed to Atalayar that he is an ex-militant of the PP since 1987, now in VOX - "you can put it, he tells me"-; he assures that Rex is the first dog follower of Isabel Díaz Ayuso since 2017. It is a fan. It has accompanied him to dozens of events and demonstrations. "I'm here because Ayuso is the best politician to get the doctor out of La Moncloa", confesses the Abascal affiliate.
After this uncivil war, the PP has been mortally wounded and no Conclave (with or without Casado) will redeem it from its sins against the Nation and the citizens. When what is at stake is Liberty or Democracy, Constitution versus separatism, Unity versus cantonalism, Rule of Law, private property, free enterprise, Monarchy, Europe... these mediocre types provoke a fratricidal fire so that the scorched earth will not be able to turn green in two decades. There is no name for the espionage.
Thursday 17th was a historic day - because it was infamous - in the national dome of the PP. After the tsunami that will affect Ayuso, shake the faint-hearted mayor Almeida and change the course of the party, it is only fitting that this Monday, the vault of power of these undocumented people, unanimously consecrates the immolation of all of them. Spain will not forgive them. Nor will the militants, sympathisers and voters who came to insult them in a civilised manner. They wanted to skate on revolving doors and the people have said enough is enough. This is as far as we have come. There is no point in asking why we have come this far. The people broke up peacefully. Red and white flags, a few PP flags and half a dozen flags of the Community of Madrid. The infinite anger did not drown out the Viva a España! of these Madrid communards, painfully fed up with having voted for Casado y Cía. Their captain is Isabel III. Casado has decided to postpone his future until 1 March. Everything is working against him.
Antonio REGALADO runs BAHÍA DE ÍTACA in:
antonioregalado.blogspot.com