Confusion in the PP after 'Génova' focuses on the pardon for Puigdemont, which they fear will affect the Galician campaign

MADRID, 11 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Several PP officials consulted by Europa Press have agreed this Sunday in expressing their confusion and disbelief at the fact that the national leadership of the PP is "entangled" with the pardon of former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont in the middle of the Galician campaign. In fact, some fear that this "error" could have consequences on the strategy of the PP candidate, Alfonso Rueda, to revalidate the Xunta de Galicia.

"These things would be better if they did not happen," said a territorial PP official. "I haven't understood it. We are in the middle of the campaign," says another veteran party leader. "It is clear that it is better to talk about Marlaska and the countryside," emphasizes a national deputy. "I am amazed and surprised," summarizes one senator.

These are some of the comments that PP leaders have expressed privately and that summarize the "perplexity" that has swept through the ranks of the PP this Sunday in response to the information collected by various media outlets that, according to PP sources, Feijóo would be open to a pardon for Puigdemont conditional on him being tried and rejecting the unilateral route. According to the same sources, the party would have studied the fit of a possible amnesty during the negotiations for Feijóo's investiture, although it would have been ruled out in "24 hours."

Feijóo tried this Sunday to settle the open crisis over the possible pardon for Puigdemont through statements to the media in Ferrol. "I'm going to be forceful enough: I have said no, I said no and I continue to say no to any amnesty."

Regarding the pardons, Feijóo has stressed that "not a single condition is met" to pardon the leaders of the 'procés', in line with the statement released last night by his party, while at the same time he has accused the Government of Pedro Sánchez of wanting to "mud up the campaign" of the Galician elections.

Several of the PP officials consulted do not understand that the party leadership has placed the possible pardon of Puigdemont at the epicenter of the debate and that it privately admits that it sees difficulties in proving that the former Catalan president committed terrorism because, as they allege, it is destroy the theses that Feijóo has been publicly defending in recent weeks.

In fact, the confusion caused by this information that would represent a change in the PP's position has led some party leaders to wonder if everything was "a fake." "Badly explained and poorly interpreted," says a leader who distributes blame and remembers that the amnesty "was studied before and was not constitutional."

Other PP sources have indicated that when they saw the headlines they thought that everything was a controlled explosion of information by the PP leadership due to the possibility that Puigdemont had them "caught", in reference to the conversations that took place during the summer for the constitution of the Congressional Board and the subsequent investiture of Feijóo.

'Génova' rejected a few months ago that there had been a negotiation with Junts and stressed that there was only "a coffee between councilors." "What is clear is that talking to Junts was a book error," says a national deputy of the PP.

This controversy over Puigdemont's pardon occurs shortly after the former Catalan president said a few days ago that "everything will be known" and that if Junts had made Feijóo president "all this would not happen", in the midst of the investigation opened by a possible crime of terrorism in the 'Tsumami Democràtic' case.

In the ranks of the PP they do not hide their concern to see what path this controversy will take in this last week of the electoral campaign in Galicia, where most polls agree that Alfonso Rueda will revalidate the absolute majority.

Some of the sources consulted consider that this "error" could affect Rueda's campaign, especially after seeing how the Government and Vox have not missed the opportunity to attack the PP and add more fuel to the fire.

Thus, several socialist ministers have launched themselves against Feijóo this Sunday and have wondered if the PP will apologize for "the atrocities" that have been said to them about the amnesty. "We knew that time would end up proving us right. What we didn't know was that Feijóo was going to recognize it so soon," exclaimed the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente.

For his part, the president of Vox, Santiago Abascal, has spoken of a "great political scam." "It is extremely serious," he stated in the A Coruña municipality of Carballo, where he has accused the PP of "entering Sánchez's political framework," by raising the possibility of "offering impunity" to the "coup plotters."

Amid criticism from the Government and Vox of Feijóo, the PP has directed its political action towards Barbate (Cádiz). Thus, the 'popular' have announced that they will request the disapproval of the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, both in Congress and in the Senate for the management of the Security Forces and Corps (FCSE) as a result of what happened, in where two civil guards died and two were injured after a drug boat ran over their zodiac.

Feijóo himself will travel this Monday to Barbate, where he will hold a meeting with unions and associations of the State Security Forces and Bodies in the Marina, as he himself announced at a rally in Outeiro de Rei (Lugo).