The day could not be more marked. On the eve of the anniversary of the PP’s Night of the Long Knives, during which the barons met for four hours at the party headquarters on Calle de Génova in Madrid, Pablo Casado ended his political career for his open war with Isabel Diaz Ayuso. On the anniversary of that territorial pact that removed him from the PP presidency, Casado had no problem sharing a meal with his successor at the helm of the party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo. According to EL PAÍS, the two politicians met again discreetly in a central restaurant in the capital. They shared a tablecloth alone, face to face, at the Taberna del Alabardero, very close to the Teatro Real and the Senate, on a day that is of great importance to both of them, especially to Casado, who since this that fateful night has remained isolated from public life and blind to all party activities.
PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo after leaving the Taberna del Alabardero in Madrid. Andrea Comas
Despite the date so marked, Genoa claims that the meal was set in advance and not improvised due to the internal crisis, although the anniversary has stirred the waters and those close to Casado are very upset with the treatment the party is giving the former president , which he wiped off the map. According to the PP, the meeting was originally scheduled for late last year and was postponed due to time constraints, but the fact is that it took place on the same day that the Barons, this Thursday exactly a year ago, had forced the exit from Married. In this meeting, which lasted until half past one in the morning, Casado experienced his darkest hours. That night, the Galician politician came out already, anointed by the others, to take the reins of the PP.
With that memory in mind, Feijóo and Casado saw each other for just over an hour and a half this Wednesday. The leader of the PP claims that there was no need for a thaw between the two because the relationship was already good. “Reconciliation, about what?” he stated as he left the restaurant, assuming there was nothing to reconcile. But both had much to talk about after the atmosphere was spoiled after Genoa earlier this week ruled out a political rehabilitation of Casado with some sort of public return a year after his departure, a decision that has outraged his supporters. The national leadership fears the reaction of the President of the Autonomous Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who emerged victorious from the internal war, but does not forget or condone Casado’s attempt to destroy his political career by publishing the order that his brother for selling masks to the government of Madrid in the middle of the pandemic.
Casado, on the other hand, assures that he does not want or demand anything from the party and that his current job in the private company prevents him from becoming politically active. The former leader of the PP turned down a job in Europe that Feijóo offered him a year ago, but he is now satisfied with his new professional achievement. At lunch, Casado and Feijóo did not speak to each other, nor did they agree that he would appear again at a public act of the PP. Casado, who seemed relaxed and smiling after meeting Feijóo, refuses to be upset that the PP has erased him from party history, but he does claim his time as PP leader. In fact, those around him assure that his stage cannot be erased, pointing to the intention to vote with which, according to polls, he left the PP and exceeded 100 seats when he was only able to get 66 MPs in the 2019 elections. .
Casado keeps in touch with Feijóo with a certain periodicity, just as he did with José María Aznar and Mariano Rajoy in the past. The Genoa statement, released after EL PAÍS published its discreet appointment, underlines that “Feijóo and Casado have a fluid relationship that they have maintained over time and over the last year they have shared reflections on various occasions employed. The meal is part of a climate of normality and respect between two people who have had the honor of leading the Partido Popular.”
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But Feijóo knows that any approach to Casado carries risks in his relationship with Ayuso. Also a year ago, the President of the Autonomous Community of Madrid demanded revenge on the PP board. At that internal meeting in early March, which took place when it was already known that Casado was leaving the party leadership, the Madrid leader called for the “expulsion” from the PP of anyone who had taken part in the “campaign”. against them. “I don’t believe in wrongly closed wounds,” said even Ayuso, who caught the reunion between Feijóo and Casado from Spain this Wednesday, in London when he returned from an official trip. For now, Ayuso is opting for an inconspicuous profile. Sources close to him have downplayed the importance of the appointment of the two leaders. “Neither fu nor fa,” they assert with a certain contempt in the Madrid President’s team, reports Juan Jose Mateo.
Former PP President Pablo Casado after leaving the Taberna del Alabardero in central Madrid this Wednesday was Andrea Comas
Although the party’s national leadership claims that there is no problem between the two and that the date has been set in advance, no one in the PP escapes the notice that the meeting is for Feijóo to seek a private rapprochement with his predecessor, at risk suggests that he might relinquish the discretion he has held since his retirement. A year later, Casado has not given an interview or spoken about anything that happened, including the betrayal of his closest associates, according to the messages he received just hours before his support was withdrawn from prominent members of the management committee. and which released EL PAÍS.
After the reunion, Feijóo quickly left the restaurant, ahead of Casado. The chairman of the PP went straight to the company car in order to arrive in time for the vote in the Senate plenum. Casado has done it quietly after being photographed with a group of patrons from the tavern who asked him to. Perfect rapprochement On the same day that the political career of one of the two ended a year ago, the deposed head of state and his successor each embarked on their own path to a new life.