Transfers of the PP: from the Catalan turn in 1995 to seek the reunification of the conservative and liberal space before 23-J
As if it were football, a political signing in August 1995 removed the classic informative lethargy of the summer months. Josep Maria Trias de Bes, a former CiU deputy and one of the founders of the Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya, agreed to lead the PP list in the province of Barcelona in the general elections the following year, which led to the party, with José María Aznar to the front, for the first time to the presidency of the Government.
A storm similar to that of almost 30 years ago has raised, this week, the incorporation of Nacho Martín Blanco, until just a few days ago spokesman for Ciudadanos in Parliament, to the popular ranks to lead the candidacy of the Barcelona constituency for the elections next July 23.
If in the first case it was a question of giving the party a Catalan turn to capture the most moderate sector of the voters of Convergència i Unió (political circumstances of another century), the fishing of the PP in the waters of Ciudadanos (the incorporation of the of Lorena Roldán for the regional elections of 2021) has the purpose of re-unifying the center-right under the popular acronym, today that the orange formation loses votes, representatives and troops in a long free fall that began in 2019.
In addition to the takeover bid for Cs, common throughout Spain, the regional PP also winked at moderate liberal-conservative Catalanism in the last municipal elections. Daniel Sirera, mayor in Barcelona, included in his list, as number eight, the lawyer Tomás Ragué Santos de Lamadrid, linked to the Centerm party, created in 2022 by the former counselor of the Generalitat of the PDeCAT Àngels Chacón, who ended up leaving his leadership and politics months later.
In addition, the PP's candidacy was closed by Santi Fisas, a former leader of the party that is now chaired by Lliga Democràtica, another formation with ideas similar to Centrem that joined that project.