Pablo Casado will leave institutional politics in the coming days. This has been confirmed this Friday in his farewell speech (read, to everyone’s surprise) of the Presidency of the PP during the first day of the XX National Congress that will elect his successor, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, on Saturday. He has addressed the words to him that represent his departure from the front line in which he has been since Mariano Rajoy appointed him Deputy Secretary of Communication: “I thank you for your offer to continue working with you. But as we have spoken, I think the best thing is that I step aside to leave my seat in Congress and any responsibility in the PP.
CHRONOLOGY: The key dates of Pablo Casado at the head of the PP
Know more
Casado has offered his last speech as president of the PP a long month after the barons of the party forced him to resign after losing the open internal war with Isabel Díaz Ayuso for payments to the brother of the president of Madrid by a company that contracted during the pandemic with its regional government. A period that he himself has described as “bittersweet” and that began with a “sense of injustice”, as he said before the National Board of Directors at the beginning of March, but which was “soon overcome by deep gratitude”.
The outgoing president has defended his legacy, expressly mentioning the partial regrouping of the right around the acronym of the PP and the “fight against corruption”. A reference that is difficult to separate from his confrontation with Ayuso, especially when in mid-February he said: “When 700 people died a day, can you contract with your sister and receive 286,000 euros?”
“We have gone from being the third force to the first, leaving it at the gates of La Moncloa,” he said, referring to the polls that in 2019 placed them behind Ciudadanos and, now, competing with the PSOE for victory. “Those who surprised, they have been absorbed”, he said again about the party that Inés Arrimadas leads today. “And to those who tried it later, we made things clear to them,” she added, referring to Vox.
Casado has also defended his internal management. “In these times of fake news, after reading and hearing so many lies about what we say or do, the truth becomes revolutionary”, he started, to continue: “I have always told the truth, whatever it cost, I faced whoever faced me. And I can say that I am very proud of it. You should never be afraid to say what you think, or to do what you should”.
I support Feijoo
Married, as he did in his last interventions, he has opted for Feijóo as his successor. “From today we open a new stage in the party, and I will be the first to facilitate it and to support a good manager, a good politician and, for me, a good friend”, he pointed out. And he has added: “Dear Alberto, you can always count on me, wherever I am, for whatever you need and whatever may be useful. Meanwhile, I will maintain the Castilian prudence and discretion that I have always shown, and that a Galician like you knows how to value in the face of noise”.
At the end of his speech, Casado has left another message that can be interpreted internally: The least important thing is people and our aspirations: above all is our party and above all, there is Spain. This is how I have understood it all my life and I have always put the common interest before my own“. ”Four years ago I told you that I came with my head held high, my hands white, my pockets clean and my heart in love with Spain. And so I give up the helm today”, he concluded.
www.eldiario.es