The electoral advance in Catalonia disrupts Feijóo's plans and surprises the PP without proclaiming a candidate

'Génova' had planned to hold the Catalan PP congress after the European elections in June

MADRID, 13 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The decision of the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, to call early elections in Catalonia for May 12 has disrupted the plans of the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who had planned to call a congress of the Catalan PP after the European elections in June and proclaim a candidate.

'Génova' is silent at this moment on whether the current president of the PPC, Alejandro Fernández, will be the party's candidate in the May elections, an appointment with the polls that will take place just three weeks after the elections in the Basque Country .

Alejandro Fernández has also not cleared up the question about whether he will be the candidate in his appearance - without questions - in the Parliament of Catalonia, where he has assured that on May 12 they have the opportunity to "end the process and Sanchismo, everything at once". What's more, he has said that it is "impossible" for the leader of the PSC, Salvador Illa, to lead a new era for Catalonia because he has proven "all this time to be complicit" in separatism.

'Génova' assumed that the Catalans would be in February 2025 - as they were four years ago - and that, at most, they would be brought forward to the month of November or December. For this reason, he had postponed the celebration of the congress to renew his project and the faces of the PPC leadership.

Before knowing this electoral preview, sources from Feijóo's team placed this Catalan PP conclave after the European elections on June 9. Aragonés' decision to call early elections has caught 'Génova' on the wrong foot.

Party sources admit that the electoral advance leaves them little room to look for an alternative. "There will not be a PPC Congress," sources from the Catalan PP have told Europa Press, adding that the decision about whether or not Alejandro Fernández is a candidate for the Generalitat "depends on Feijóo."

Although 'Génova' has not ruled out Alejandro Fernández, other possible candidates also appear in the pools of these months: the PP spokesperson in the European Parliament, Dolors Montserrat; the councilor at the Barcelona City Council, Daniel Sirera, the PP deputy and former Cs spokesperson Nacho Martín Blanco; or the mayor of Castelldefels, Manu Reyes.

In any case, sources from the PP leadership already anticipate that the main electoral poster of the party in Catalonia will be Feijóo himself, who in recent months has defended the need for this community to once again be an economic engine and have a Government that takes care of of citizens' problems, without being focused on the 'procés'.

In recent months, Fernández and Feijóo's team have maintained a distant relationship. There was even a public clash at the end of last summer when the leader of the Catalan PP questioned whether 'Génova' defended speaking with Junts within the framework of the talks for Feijóo's investiture.

"Junts is my rival, a party whose essential thesis is that Spain is a dictatorship led by a fascist King, with whom they refuse to 'talk'. Someone tell me what we need to 'talk' about with them... "said Fernández in a message on his official account of the social network 'X', formerly Twitter.