A united front against Soraya
Santamaría attempts to use rank and file to assert her victory, offering to integrate other factions into leadership
The Partit Popular found itself inside the unknown dimension when the results of the first ever primary vote for the party leadership was announced on Thursday night. Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría (36.9% of the votes) and Pablo Casado (34.3%) will now face each other in the final vote that will be made by elected party commissars. The party apparatus is faced with the dilemma of respecting the votes of the militants or enthroning the loser during the congress on July 20 and 21.
Obviously the former deputy of Mariano Rajoy, and the first ever woman to have the possibility of becoming party leader, has emphasised her victory and defies the leadership to ignore the rank and file. Meanwhile, Pablo Casado is in the throws of putting together a united front of those opposing her, and that, it seems, involves nearly everyone inside the party structure, especially Dolors Cospedal and José Manuel García-Margallo. The latter, in fact, announced he was standing as a candidate for the party presidency simply because he wanted to do everything possible to keep Sáenz de Santamaria out of the job.
Casado has stressed that in a normal vote for the presidency in a national congress, he would almost certainly win the vote in a two-off showdown, however that may not be the case due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Soraya Sáenz de Santamaria has played her cards well from the beginning, once Rajoy announced he would leave the vote open instead of nominating a successor. By using a common PP demand that in elections the “first past the post” should take the victory and with Pedro Sánchez the clear victor in the PSOE’s open primaries, she has created an expectation among the party grassroots that will be difficult to ignore.