• The announcement: Married dismisses Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo as spokesperson in Congress and appoints Almeida as national spokesperson
  • The reaction. Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo says that his dismissal is "detrimental to the PP"
  • The substitute.Cuca Gamarra, a woman with a lot of pedals and little noise

Pablo Casado gave an important turn in the PP on Monday with the dismissal of Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo as party spokesperson in the Congress of Deputies. Personal signing of the popular leader for the 2019 general elections, the deputy has had an abrupt exit a year later, faced with the leadership of the PP and many of its regional leaders, and with an appearance in which she expressed her discrepancy with his dismissal and he launched harsh accusations against the party.

Álvarez de Toledo's role had always been discussed by a sector of the party, represented above all by its barons , led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, but also by members of the leadership such as the secretary general, Teodoro García Egea. If in 2019 they had not supported his appointment, in recent months, with the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis, criticism of his way of exercising opposition from the Lower House had soared.

Feijóo, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco and Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla have made permanent calls in recent months to focus the party's discourse and to oppose the Government of Pedro Sánchez and Pablo Iglesias a management and efficiency profile, distancing themselves from populism and radicalism as much as possible. In his opinion, the fact that Álvarez de Toledo was the spokesperson was an impediment to deepening this strategy.

The president of the Xunta de Galicia has been the most direct, openly criticizing some interventions by Álvarez de Toledo ("enough of this type of spectacle in Congress") and demanding that the party leadership keep the deputy silent during the Galician electoral campaign.

The three reasons for Married

In this sense, the coronavirus crisis and the result of the Galician elections -and partly also of the Basque ones-, in which Feijóo devastated, had created a favorable climate for his dismissal, which Casado finally decided upon losing confidence in his parliamentary spokesperson.

According to sources in Genoa, there have been three final reasons that have decided the cessation. The first, that the spokesperson for the parliamentary group cannot go it alone, not only in her political positions, but also in some decisions and appointments.

The second, Álvarez de Toledo's defense of a government of concentration with the PSOE. And the third, his request that Juan Carlos I give explanations about the investigation of his supposed fortune.

In recent weeks, the deterioration of the relationship was already very evident and pointed to what happened this Monday. The environment of the former spokesperson points in particular to Teodoro García Egea and to a specific fact: the dismissal a few days ago of Gabriel Elorriaga , a person of the highest confidence of Álvarez de Toledo, as head of the group's legal advice.

One way out: the Concordia y Libertad foundation

The termination of the spokesperson materialized in a long conversation with Casado, as revealed by herself. The PP later included it in a broader remodeling of the party, in which the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, will occupy the new position of national spokesperson; Cuca Gamarra will be the spokesperson in Congress, and Ana Pastor will become the Deputy Secretary for Social Policy.

There are three relevant appointments in that they value that management profile. Especially important is that of Almeida, whose popularity has grown during the crisis and to whom Casado has decided to give a role at the national level with a newly created position.

The changes will materialize in a National Board of Directors this Thursday. Casado has tried to get Álvarez de Toledo to continue collaborating with the party and has offered him to be the general secretary of the Concordia y Libertad foundation , as this newspaper has learned. The deputy is still thinking about what to do in the future and if she will keep the minutes in Congress, but she is inclined to reject this proposal.

The consequences of this movement at the internal and electoral level remain to be calibrated. Álvarez de Toledo is a member of the board of the Faes Foundation and his entry into Casado's project was interpreted at the time as part of the PP leader's approach to José María Aznar after his confrontation with Mariano Rajoy.

For the moment, in Genoa there was full satisfaction with Casado's decision. "Neither Aznar nor Rajoy, this new address is Casado's", party sources stated. In Genoa they believe that Álvarez de Toledo "has photographed herself" and that her appearance this Monday was the best proof that her permanence as spokesperson in Congress was unsustainable.

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Know more

  • PP
  • Teodoro Garcia Egea
  • Pablo Casado
  • Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo
  • Jose Maria Aznar
  • Mariano Rajoy
  • Alberto Nunez Feijoo
  • Alfonso Fernandez Manueco
  • Ana Pastor
  • Congress of Deputies
  • Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla

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