Cospedal sounded out Feijóo to succeed Rajoy in 2018 and avoid an internal battle, according to Luis de Grandes

In his book 'Witness of a time', which Rajoy will present, he hopes that Feijóo will turn the PP into the alternative that Spain needs

MADRID, 12 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The former MEP and former parliamentary spokesman for the Popular Group in Congress, Luis de Grandes, already opted for Alberto Núñez Feijóo in June 2018 as soon as Mariano Rajoy's resignation was confirmed after the motion of censure and told the then secretary general of the PP María Dolores de Cospedal that "the best role" she could play was to promote from the party "the candidacy of unity" around Alberto Núñez Feijóo.

"After three years, what I believed as a personal leadership solution has been possible and it seems to me that it will be good for everyone," says De Grandes in his book 'Witness of a time' (Almuzara) focused on "the history of the center-right Spanish from Adolfo Suárez to Mariano Rajoy". In fact, the latter will present the work next Wednesday together with former Minister of Labor Manuel Pimentel, president of this publishing house specializing in political thought.

Luis de Grandes (Guadalajara, 1945) told Cospedal in the conversations they had after the Executive Committee of the PP on June 5 -in which Rajoy's goodbye was confirmed- that she had a "special responsibility" and he encouraged her to promote a candidacy around Feijóo, who in his opinion could "raise the unity of all".

"A position of that tenor, would enhance your figure and would avoid the dispersion of candidacies that are not to your liking," he reveals that he then transferred Cospedal, who, in his opinion, "did not reject the idea." "And I think he tried without success," he adds in the book.

De Grandes - a deputy in the Cortes for seven legislatures, including the Constituent Assembly, and then a deputy in the European Parliament for fifteen years - considers that time has proved him right regarding the "suitability" of Feijóo, who "had his reasons to circumvent his candidacy" and he respects them.

The one who was spokesman for the Popular Group in Congress between 1996 and 2000 considers that Cospedal was "generous and did not use his position in the party for his benefit." What's more, he points out that the former defense minister also "didn't give up her efforts to find consensus formulas that will avoid confrontation." "I suggested that she seek a pact with Soraya and she tried it. The result was null," she says.

In fact, he reveals in the book the conversation he had with her about that contact with the former Vice President of the Government. "How was the meeting?" I asked. "Nothing, Luis, the answer, generals of the law, has not offered anything."

In his book, De Grandes recounts more details of that extraordinary congress of the PP -- he was appointed president of the Organized Committee (COC) -- and which was finally attended by six candidates: Emilio Cabanes, Pablo Casado, María Dolores de Cospedal, José Ramón García Hernández, José Manuel Margallo and Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría.

In the vote of the militants, Santamaría and Casado won. "After the defeat, Dolores saw how her squad, disoriented and without a slogan, made her own decisions, and she agreed with Casado," she says. The victory in that extraordinary conclave in July was finally for the second, which prevailed over the former Vice President of the Government in the vote of the delegates.

Luis de Grandes considers that the primary system included in the PP Statutes is "at least, improvable". "The two-stage primaries contain many traps, and more than legitimate concurrences, they produce confrontations with 'political blood'."

Apart from the requirements demanded in the Statutes -which he sees as "a suit tailored to Rajoy with the inconvenience that he could no longer go through the tailor shop--, he admits that it was difficult to explain to public opinion how after boasting that the PP was the "largest party in Europe with half a million members, only seventy thousand participated".

"The truth is that I had to do dialectical bobbin lace to explain the fact without lying. In my opinion, a distinction should be made between the list of people who do not care about being on a list and receiving information, from the real militancy who pays a fee and is willing to participate in decisions when appropriate".

De Grandes considers that Rajoy "should not leave through the back door" after the "destructive" motion of censure and should be fired "with honours", for which he proposed a conclave in two stages and in two days to achieve that purpose. "My greatest concern when organizing the Extraordinary Congress was to preserve the prestige of the PP," he stresses.

The former spokesman for the Popular Group during the Aznar government assures that he "fully" trusts Feijóo to "restore the pride of belonging" to the PP, "support the new leaderships in presence and turn the PP back into the alternative that Spain needs" .

In addition, he asks to join forces so that "the enemies of constitutional Spain do not succeed in undermining the principles that the constituents" reflected in article 2 of the Magna Carta. "To the extent that, as a constituent, you can invoke the authentic interpretation, I think that in this text if there is something that is unequivocally clear, it is the indivisibility of Spain," he concludes.