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Bloomberg
Mariano Rajoy is rallying his troops for a political fightback. But his troops aren’t so sure. The Spanish prime minister is encouraging some senior officials to run in regional elections next year as he looks to shore up his People’s Party’s power base, according to people familiar with his thinking who asked not to be named discussing party strategy. Yet loyalties to the 62-year-old Rajoy are starting to waver as ministers, key advisers and media allies all distance themselves from the wounded leader. A PP press officer a spokesman at the prime minister’s office both declined to comment.
“Rajoy is fighting a widely held feeling that it’s time for a change,†said Miguel Marin, a founder of Analisis Economico Integral, who previously worked as an adviser to the PP.
The most immediate challenge to his authority comes from Catalonia, where parliamentary speaker Roger Torrent said Tuesday he won’t propose an alternative to Carles Puigdemont as regional president, despite Rajoy’s insistence that the separatist leader is disqualified because of his legal problems.
The Spanish leader has suffered potentially fatal blows before — his party lost a third of its seats in the 2015 election — and he’s proved himself the PP’s great survivor from a generation who emerged in the 1990s as ministers under Jose Maria Aznar. The prime minister is aiming to steady the ship before municipal and regional votes in June next year, which will set the tone for the general election due in 2020. With more than 8,000 town halls and 13 of 17 regional governments up for grabs, the local and regional elections are crucial in the Spanish political fabric as party leaders look to secure jobs for their people and maintain the morale of the rank-and-file.
“Having institutional power at local and regional levels is key if you want to have options at the national level,†said Veronica Fumanal, a political marketing expert, who has advised both Ciudadanos and the Socialists. Still, Rajoy’s efforts to fire up the campaign machine are meeting resistance.
But there is mounting evidence that Catalonia’s push for independence last year has changed something fundamental in Spanish politics. Support for Rajoy’s PP has slumped to the lowest level since 1989, and for the first time in two generations its voters have a viable alternative on the center-right in Ciudadanos, which has led in three out of five polls this month.