The battle of the Catalan PP with Feijóo intensifies after admitting that there were contacts with Junts

The controversy over the PP's willingness to sit at the table with Junts to address the investiture of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, which began just a week after the 23-J elections, returns like a boomerang less than two weeks after the candidate popular is submitted to the scrutiny of Congress and threatens the internal coexistence of a divided party in Catalonia.

The leader of the conservatives in Barcelona City Council, Daniel Sirera, yesterday became the first leader to openly acknowledge having been involved in any of those contacts.. Although the president of the PP in the region, Alejandro Fernández, opposes dialogue with JxCat, Sirera polled at least three members of Carles Puigdemont's party (two Barcelona councilors and a former deputy) about their demands in relation to the constitution of the Lower House Board, which occurred a month ago, and an investiture whose session is scheduled for next September 26 and 27.

Sirera's confession – who limited contacts to informal talks at various public events – came a few hours after Fernández expressed for the umpteenth time his rejection of any type of negotiation with the post-convergents and stated that he is not willing to bow down despite being questioned by the national leadership. In a conference given on Thursday, with which he sought to establish a profile, he declared himself “a free man without guardianship” and warned against possible “hesitation or ambiguity” regarding the independence movement.

For the third time since the elections, Fernández challenges any possibility of entering into negotiations with Junts. Already at the end of July, after the deputy secretary of regional coordination of the PP, Pedro Rollán, only closed the doors to speak with Bildu, the Catalan leader replied that “with a fugitive from Justice (for Puigdemont) there is nothing to negotiate » and that «if Pedro Sánchez does it it is because he lacks scruples and limits».

A little over two weeks ago, the president of the popular Catalans once again called attention to the national leadership after a new verbal approach to JxCat and questioned whether there was anything to talk about with a party that he defined as his rival and ” whose essential thesis is that Spain is a dictatorship led by a fascist King.

GONZÁLEZ PONS-TURULL MEETING?

Fernández's new pulse comes just after Feijóo's recent words in which he acknowledged that members of his party “have listened to some of Junts' approaches.”. In Genoa, yesterday they denied any contact with the independence movement. “No one has spoken with Junts formally,” stressed sources from the PP leadership to, among other “rumors”, rule out that the deputy secretary general of the party, Esteban González Pons, met with the general secretary of JxCat, Jordi Turull. , mid-August. The post-convergents, for their part, did not want to make any comment on this assumption..

The popular ones assert that there has been no “interlocutor” with the Puigdemont formation before the constitution of the Table and that, after that step, the only person in charge of the conversations was Cuca Gamarra. The PP tries, in this way, to dispel any insinuation of this type regarding the relevance of the next two weeks, first with the “great act” on the 24th that the conservatives are preparing in Madrid against a possible amnesty for those accused of the process and, 48 hours later, with the investiture session to which Feijóo will undergo, condemned to failure.

The PP's war in Catalonia, however, will continue in the coming months, at least until a congress is held that does not yet have a date.. With his demonstrations, Fernández shows his willingness to continue leading the party despite the obstacle posed by the opposition of Feijóo and his team, who have the mayor of Castelldefels, Manu Reyes, as their main stiletto, given that MEP Dolors Montserrat shows preferences to remain in Brussels.

Sponsored by the old families of the Catalan conservatives, such as the brothers Jorge and Alberto Fernández Díaz, Reyes, who currently holds the position of provincial leader in Barcelona, has among his credentials the great citizen support that he has managed to attract in his town by winning the last four elections. Last June, he recovered the baton of Castelldefels after two mandates in which the multiparty pacts between socialists, commoners and independence left the popular ones in the opposition. On the other hand, he does not enjoy the same support among the Catalan PP militancy, mostly in favor of Fernández's continuity.