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The People's Party of Spain started a new era on Saturday with the election of young economist and lawyer Pablo Casado as president and successor of Mariano Rajoy, who led the conservative training for 14 years until the end of the year. last month, after being fired at the head of the Spanish government for a corruption scandal in the party.
Casado, 37, won the vote of over 57% of the 3,082 delegates gathered at an extraordinary PP congress in Madrid and surpbaded another candidate, the former vice president of the Government, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, after a hard campaign marked by counterclaims and defamatory videos.
The new leader of the Spanish right, a 37-year-old MP, lacks government experience, but he became the chief of communication for the party since 2015 and previously in as a collaborator of the former President of the Government José María Aznar. 9002] He now promises to make illusion to a party that has long been undermined by a cascade of corruption scandals, a scourge that motivated the motion of censure with which the Socialists overthrew Mariano Rajoy on June 1.
In what some call a "right turn," he promised a "stronger and more united" party and maintains a speech in favor of life, family, dignity victims of ETA terrorism and "steadfastness" against the challenge of Catalan independence.
In the last few months, Rajoy's successor has not stopped defending a hand-held policy against Catalan separatism, which calls for to fight "without any complexes."
"Dialogue does not fit who wants to break the law," repeated as a mantra Pablo Casado who also advocates recovery in the criminal code the crime of invocation In matters of society has also shown a conservative profile: blasted the current Socialist government's plan to decriminalize euthanasia, demagogically mark its openness to welcoming migrants into the Mediterranean, and defended the return a law on abortion of the 1980s , more restrictive than the current law
The challenge of the party revival
His challenge will be to revitalize the party, to shake him the burden of corruption, prepare it for the municipal and regional elections of 2019 and, most importantly, win the next general election, presumably in 2020, so that the PP leaves the opposition and returns to rule the & # 39; Spain.
In this sense, He announced that he intended to integrate the team of the other candidate into the new party leadership. "Now we have to integrate and we have to work together, and I will do it," said Santamaría from him.
In recent times, Casado already appeared as an emerging value of the PP, which he confirmed on July 5. last, when he was the second favorite candidate by activists in a previous vote, behind Santamaría.
The other four candidates who were eliminated then decided to support Casado, including former Secretary General and former Defense Minister María Dolores of Cospedal.
Despite the information that questions his academic credentials Casado remained firm to reach the final vote this Saturday – supported by much of Rajoy's former ministers – and rejected L & # 39; Santamaría's bid was to be presented in a previous joint list led by her.
Finally, the new president of the PP obtained the support of 1,701 delegates against the 1,250 Antamaría
Casado was congratulated by the socialist leader and president of the government, Pedro Sánchez, and by the president of Ciudadanos (liberals) , Albert Rivera.
Born in the city of Palencia (North) in 1981, the new president of the PP is the youngest of all the candidates who aspired to this position. He is national deputy for the province of Ávila (center), lawyer and economist.
He joined the PP in 2003 and was president of New Generations (youth of the party) between 2005 and 2013. In 2015, with Rajoy, jumped to the national leadership of the PP, first as spokesperson for the election campaign of the municipal and regional elections of May this year; and later appointed communication officer (spokesperson) of the party.
Source: agencies
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