Feijóo will renew the PP leadership to strengthen and relaunch his alternative.

Faced with the "decay of the government," which is bringing the prospect of early elections closer, the PP will face the second half of the term with a renewed project and a strengthened team. This was announced yesterday, after days of speculation about holding a congress, by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who responded to the "rumors" alluded to by Isabel Díaz Ayuso hours earlier and settled the debate by calling the conclave for the first weekend of July in Madrid.

The leak to a digital media outlet last Friday of the PP leader's plans, with whom he had only spoken with his inner circle and former presidents José María Aznar and Mariano Rajoy, precipitated the publicity of a decision that had been "thought through for some time," as evidenced by the fact that the venue at Ifema that will host the events was already reserved on March 11.

Although the national governing board, the highest body between congresses, did not plan to "move from the Pope's conclave to that of the PP" until next week, as Feijóo defined it, Génova was unable to focus on the criticism of Pedro Sánchez for his messages in which he "missed" José Luis Ábalos after having dismissed him and had to leave in the background the fact that the president was "aware that a corruption scheme had operated within his government that was enriching itself at the expense of everyone's money" to address the growing rumors about his own congress.

Feijóo had warned his inner circle and former presidents Aznar and Rajoy of his intentions.

"This government is already in its countdown, however long it lasts. But, most importantly, we have to activate the clock of change now," the Popular Party leader harangued his supporters, urging them to be prepared for the new cycle and energize the party to challenge Sánchez at the polls.

The date chosen for the congress, at the beginning of summer, but already in the middle of the holiday season, is justified by the end of the Parliamentary session, during which the PP does not want to be "distracted" from its role in monitoring the Executive. This way, the main opposition party will arrive in September with its homework done and will be able to begin the new year "fully operational," Feijóo predicted.

Although the PP leader admitted that this is an extraordinary meeting, given that it has only been three years since he was elevated to the top of the PP party in Seville following the ouster of Pablo Casado, his intention is for the Madrid congress to be "ordinary from the perspective of ideas and the project."

The announcement of its 21st national congress relegates the PP's criticism of Pedro Sánchez to the background.

In this sense, the PP will do what it hasn't done since its last ordinary congress, held way back in 2017. Unlike the extraordinary ones that came after it, which were held to renew its leadership—first, after Rajoy's resignation, in the person of Casado, and then in that of Feijóo himself—it will address the renewal of its program and its statutes.

Regarding the keynote address, Feijóo spoke about defining the PP's priorities, at a time when the far right is trying to set the conservative agenda on seemingly settled moral issues, such as abortion and euthanasia, and is adopting openly xenophobic positions on immigration.

But when "Vox's patriotism has collapsed because they've put a pat on the back for their foreign allies before the interests of Spain," the Popular Party leader analyzed, in a clear allusion to Santiago Abascal's rapport with US President Donald Trump, who is threatening an unprecedented tariff war, the time has come to distance themselves.

Ayuso opens the day by calling for the conclave to be expedited to end the "rumor"

And regarding the party's internal functioning, Génova recalled that Feijóo has always said that the primary system has "room for improvement," so the role of the membership and the delegates who ultimately elect the leaders will be reconsidered.

Be that as it may, next Monday, coinciding with the meeting of the national executive board, the organizing committee charged with steering the way to the 21st PP Congress will be appointed. On the last occasion, in 2022, this collegiate body was led by Esteban González Pons.

Whatever Feijóo's team's initial intentions regarding time control, the Madrid leader opened the day by calling for the congress to be expedited, "because otherwise, in the end, everyone here will have an opinion except the key players," Ayuso warned.

Without a renewal since 2017, the PP will update its political report to distance itself from Vox.

And upon arriving at Génova Street to participate in the executive committee meeting, the five regional presidents who attended—Juanma Moreno of Andalusia, María Guardiola of Extremadura, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco of Castile and León, Jorge Azcón of Aragon, and Fernando López Miras of Murcia—agreed that the decision was in Feijóo's hands and that it would be "the most appropriate." Away from the microphones, and amid the expectation of journalists, one even advised against going on vacation in July. And he was right.

González Pons relieves Montserrat in Brussels

Valencian MEP Esteban González Pons will continue to serve as deputy secretary for institutional and international affairs for the PP executive despite taking on a new position in the European Parliament, where he will replace Catalan Dolors Montserrat, who has been appointed secretary general of the European People's Party (EPP), as spokesperson for the PP group. Thus, no changes are expected in the leadership before the July congress, but that doesn't mean the name-calling and the pooling of candidates hasn't already begun. "We can talk about everything, but we'll see the positions; we're not going to settle them yet," insists Génova, where they believe that from an organizational perspective, this is the best time to revamp the organizational structure, as there are no electoral processes in sight until the elections are called in Castile and León and, later, in Andalusia. The general secretary position could change hands, according to some sources, as could the spokesperson positions in the Congress and Senate, and within the party itself. It will be two months until the conclave of comings and goings of interested speculations.