• Controversial.Sémper, to Álvarez de Toledo: "While some walked on soft carpets, others played our lives"

The president of the Basque PP, Alfonso Alonso, will receive today with the best of his smiles his president Pablo Casado at the close of a convention in which Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo slipped to generate a tsunami that threatened the battered organization of the party in Euskadi . Álvarez de Toledo denounced in the hours before the internal conclave the "warmth" of the Basque PP before nationalism and the "failure" of that project. A very hard and inopportune analysis that yesterday had a resounding public response by the presidents of Guipúzcoa and Vizcaya of the PP, Borja Sémper and Antón Damborenea .

Borja Sémper recalled that "while some stepped on soft carpets, others played our lives" while Antón Damborenea warned that "whoever knows neither History nor the Constitution cannot be a spokesperson for the PP".

Pablo Casado will endorse today both the leadership in the Basque PP of Alfonso Alonso and his decision to activate a “profile of his own” in Euskadi with which he intends to recover the electoral ground lost to the moderate nationalism represented by the lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu. After the bad results of the general elections of April - when the Basque PP did not achieve a single deputy of the 18 elected in Euskadi- and in the May municipalities when he only conserved two mayorships in small towns of Alava , Alonso announced in June a convention to provide the Basque PP with a "profile" different from that used by Casado in the tough election campaign of the generals against Pedro Sánchez. In addition, the president of the Basque PP does not share the possibility that the Navarra Suma formula that allowed Unión del Pueblo Navarro (UPN), PP and Ciudadanos to present themselves together and improve their electoral results be transferred to Euskadi.

Alonso's "own profile" was also under examination in Genoa, which since last July had compromised Pablo Casado's presence today at the closing of the conclave at the Europa Palace in Vitoria . But the public silence of the direction of the PP broke last Thursday when Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo shot against the waterline of Alonso's strategy. The spokeswoman explained that she described as "serious error" that "the legitimacy of our constitutional order has reserved areas that refer to previous historical rights and not to the Constitution and common sovereignty." Words that were interpreted as a disqualification of the commitment to the "constitutional foralism" of the Basque PP. Paradoxically, Alvarez de Toledo's warning accurately describes the interpretation that both PNV and EH Bildu have used on historical rights to claim that the right of self-determination be recognized in a future Basque Statute that is currently being analyzed in a commission of experts

But both the alleged attack on the foralist position of the Basque PP and the interpretation of the "warmth" of his colleagues in Euskadi generated harsh public reactions and a monumental anger in the direction of Alfonso Alonso. Sémper, who recalled his status as spokesman for the PP in the Basque Parliament , described it as "painful" for Álvarez de Toledo to question his commitment to the defense of the Spanish Constitution. In a few brief and calculated statements before the start of the convention, he recalled that throughout the history of the PP there have been many colleagues who have given their "blood, sweat and tears" in defense of the current legal and political framework. In addition, he expressly called on Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo to apologize after what he considered a mistake. "She owns her words and represents herself," she said to focus the confrontation with the spokeswoman in Congress while she seemed to protect the rest of Genoa's leadership.

Also his partner in the Vizcaya PP and Basque parliamentarian Antón Damborenea wanted to publicly express his disappointment with Álvarez de Toledo. "Who does not know the history or the Constitution can not be spokesman for the PP, but this is an appointment of the president," said Damborena, one of the institutional positions that shared a seat in the Basque Parliament with Gregorio Ordonez and that, as I remembered yesterday In Vitoria, he had to take an escort from the murder of Ordonez in 1995 to the final ceasefire of ETA in 2011.

Meanwhile, Alfonso Alonso decided to reserve himself for the closing of the convention that he will share with Pablo Casado and simply stated that he has the explicit support of “the heights” of the PP to maintain his political proposal. Sources from the Basque leadership said yesterday that Genoa knew from last Tuesday the political presentation that today will be explained by Secretary General Amaya Fernández and that he "loved" the Casado team.

«The movie is not over. Married closes the convention of the Basque PP and I am convinced that we will get a very clear support, ”said Alonso after an internal debate with which he has regained relevance in the PP.

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  • PP
  • Pablo Casado
  • Alfonso Alonso
  • Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo
  • Borja Semper
  • Pedro Sanchez
  • Alava
  • Guipúzcoa
  • ETA

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País VascoSémper, Álvarez de Toledo: "While some walked on soft carpets, others played our lives"