“I will multiply,” warned Elías Bendodo, minutes after the Andalusian PP announced by WhatsApp that the strong man of the Government of Juan Manuel Moreno will occupy number three of the new national executive of Alberto Núñez Feijóo. Bendodo will combine many weighty functions, but he does not plan to do so for a long time: advisor to the Presidency and spokesman for the Board, head of the electoral committee of the Andalusian PP at the gates of decisive elections, president of the Malaga PP and, from this Sunday, general coordinator of the national PP.
After the regional ones, and “until Moreno’s next term begins”, Elías Bendodo will abandon all his positions in Andalusian politics to turn to the Feijóo executive, where he will work in tandem with the general secretary, Cuca Gamarra, confirm sources close to the counselor . It remains to be seen if the design of counterweights that the Galician has formed in the leadership of the national PP is permanent or transitory. Within the PP-A they point out that the man from Malaga “is called to be the strong man of Feijóo”, as he has been for the Andalusian leader, and that the Galician “will dismantle the tandem” in 2023, when he proposes Gamarra to be the PP candidate for the elections in La Rioja.
Bendodo’s announcement as number three of the national PP was accompanied by a notice: he will combine the position with his responsibilities in Andalusia. Moreno could not do without his strong man just before the Andalusians, but he will do so just after, if the elections revalidate the PP government, as the polls indicate. The man from Malaga will design the campaign, as he did three years ago, and will pilot the strategy of the Andalusian president, he will stay to negotiate the investiture and the agreements that are necessary, if Moreno does not reach the comfortable majority that he hopes and desires. But then he will go to Madrid.
On Friday night Feijóo announced the first five names of his executive. When appointing Bendodo, the Galician slipped that his new organic responsibilities were hardly compatible with the positions he occupies in Andalusia. “Talk to Juanma about that,” he said. “The popular ones always come to Andalusia for the great moments, but they are always piloted by a Galician”, the Galician said.
The position of general coordinator of the PP did not exist in Pablo Casado’s executive, but Feijóo rescues it from the organizational chart of Mariano Rajoy’s leadership. But there is a notable difference: Back then, the PP governed Spain, the general secretary, María Dolores de Cospedal, was also a minister, and its organic counterweight was represented by that figure of general coordinator, in the hands of Fernando Martínez Maíllo.
Now the PP is in the opposition and has to rebuild itself in record time before the general elections that Feijóo has promised to “win to govern”. The Galician needs Bendodo focused on the organic strategy and on his position in Genoa 13, which will not be just a nod to the specific weight Andalusia will have in Feijóo’s team. The general coordinator will have to coordinate with Gamarra, but he will also be a counterweight to his power, as in his day was the tandem that Rajoy created: Cospedal-Maíllo.
The idea of the general coordinator is to “strengthen the team with a person who serves as a liaison with the deputy secretaries, who collaborates actively with the general secretary, and who contributes organizational, institutional and management experience to the project,” explain sources from the Andalusian PP.
Elías Bendodo Benasayag (Málaga, 1974) is the visible face and strong man of the Andalusian Government. He is the advisor to the Presidency who brings together more institutional power than ever in a coalition Executive with Ciudadanos, he is Moreno’s trusted person who negotiated the government agreement with the oranges and the investiture agreement with Vox.
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