“He is not a man to take steps back”. The career of Elías Bendodo, general coordinator of the Popular Party and the most effective link of the Feijóo team with the Andalusian PP, reflects a constant and linear projection, from municipal to national politics, passing through provincial and regional positions; typical of someone who knows well the internal dynamics of the parties and the capricious times of politics, which advise staying firm in one's goals and not looking back.

Some sources consulted by EL MUNDO therefore rule out that the Malaga politician has any intention of abandoning national politics to once again gain a foothold in the Andalusian Government regardless of the result of the reform that Feijóo will announce this week at the top of the game. «They don't know him. He is not a person who abandons a project that has only just begun.. Let us also not forget that the legislature can be short,” they insist.

From Andalusia, they are “calmly” observing the movements that Feijóo may make in the coming hours to compact his team, convinced that whether Bendodo remains as number three or not, he will continue to play a relevant role in the design of strategies such as That's how it's been since he joined the team.

Bendodo, who was Juanma Moreno's right-hand man in the self-proclaimed government of change, landed in Genoa in April 2022, along with another heavyweight of the Andalusian executive, his former Treasury advisor, Juan Bravo.. Both had earned a well-deserved reputation as effective politicians, each in their own field and in their style: Bendodo, as a merciless battering ram in the strategy of confrontation against the Government of Pedro Sánchez; and Bravo, as the architect and speaker of the “fiscal revolution” that Moreno has turned into his watchword. The two were part of that first coalition and minority government that carried out three budgets. That was, furthermore, the only PP-Cs coalition that did not blow up. And without a doubt that had a lot to do with the efficient way of the PP in managing the needs of its allies: avoiding Vox's demands with long exchanges and seducing the cadres and voters of the orange party.

But, when Bendodo and Bravo left for Madrid, the Andalusian PP still had the challenge of validating at the polls the political projection that the power of the Junta had given to Juanma Moreno.. He still had, so to speak, to be crowned the winner in a regional election, because, in the 2018 elections, which ended 37 years of government in Andalusia, the results of the PP had actually been disastrous despite the fact that the situation allowed them to achieve historic performance thanks to Ciudadanos and Vox.

That victory, adorned with a resounding absolute majority, would not come until June 2022, but when Feijóo signed Bendodo and Bravo for his team, two months before, all the polls already pointed to an incontestable promotion. Since then, both have been partly hostages to the very high expectations generated. It was said that they would transfer the success formula of the PP-A to Madrid. Reality has subsequently proven to be somewhat more complex than that desideratum.. It turned out that there are no infallible formulas, whether they come from Andalusia or Galicia.

With the uncertainty generated by the changes announced by Feijóo, the Andalusian PP is clear that its influence in Genoa is given, in part, by the presence of people Moreno trusts in the party's Executive Committee but, above all, by the enormous territorial power that it has treasured in the most populated community in Spain, where it governs in the eight capitals and in six of its councils.

For the rest, they insist again and again that “the decisions that Feijóo is going to make are only known to Feijóo until the moment he formulates them in public”. The president of the popular has always handled himself with extreme zeal and discretion in the formation of his teams. And this time it doesn't seem any different.