Married separates Alonso as a candidate of the PP and Cs in Euskadi and appoints Carlos Iturgaiz

"I return to politics excited about Pablo Casado's proposal to lead the PP + Cs coalition as a candidate for lehendakari," Carlos Iturgaiz said on social media on Sunday. "He is a moral reference and the most voted candidate for lehendakari in the history of the PP," the popular president wrote. With those two tweets, he intended to close the game for a week of heart attack and public clashes between the national leadership and the Basque PP; between the leader of the formation and his own electoral candidate. But the decision to replace Alonso opens a wound in the heart of the game since the lead years of ETA.

The secretary general of the PP, Teodoro García Egea, avoided clarifying this Sunday the reasons for the replacement of Alonso in the same way that a few weeks ago he avoided the repeated questions of journalists about the delay in the confirmation of the candidate for lehendakari of their leader in Euskadi. That ambiguity in their responses, to which other party leaders also contributed, evidenced an open secret: the sidereal distance between Casado and his Basque baron, who supported Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría in the primaries and belongs to the moderate sector of the party. But the popular president finally telephoned Alonso to confirm him as a candidate. It was last February 10. This Sunday, 13 days later, he called again to tell him that he had changed his mind and that Carlos Iturgaiz replaced him, the same who, last April, annoyed at having been relegated to 17th place in the PP lists to the European Parliament, he announced That left politics.

Before Casado's call, Alonso met this Sunday in Madrid with the general secretary of the PP. The leader of the popular Basques did not plan to resign and had called a meeting in Euskadi for the purpose of analyzing the coalition agreement with Citizens and starting to negotiate with the national leadership to “redirect it”. The Basque PP considers excessive the “two exit positions” that Genoa guaranteed to Cs - currently without representation in the territory - during a negotiation that was completely carried out in Madrid and with its back to the candidate. But Casado did not want to negotiate with Alonso. National PP sources believe that by not going to Genoa on Friday to "analyze" the document of the pact was giving them a pulse that they were not willing to play. Alonso's environment argues, however, that he was summoned ten minutes before midnight on Thursday to a meeting at eleven in the morning in Genoa and that he was never offered to see the terms of the agreement. Management's response on Friday was that this would be done, with or without him, and that the decision was "in his hand." This Sunday, they decided for him.

"They have killed the Basque PP"

García Egea said that it had been “by mutual agreement”, but Alonso himself explained that it was Casado who had called him to communicate his relief. The decision fell like a bomb in Euskadi. "They have killed the Basque PP," lamented a leader. The popular Basques consulted by this newspaper are convinced that the fact that everything has been imposed from Madrid will penalize them at the polls.

The national leadership of the party communicated this Sunday to Inés Arrimadas and the provincial presidents of the PP in Euskadi the decision to appoint Iturgaiz. The open crisis with the still leader of the popular Basques and the method of negotiation with Cs has triggered internal unrest in several territories. Leaders and former leaders of the party consulted by this newspaper believe that Casado has blown up unwritten rules, but respected until his arrival, when preparing the electoral lists and negotiating regional pacts. Everything is done now from Madrid. They consider alliances with Cs to be convenient - such as Alonso himself, who had already tried despite Albert Rivera's rejection - but they believe that the different situation in which the rival party is now has not been taken into account. In April, they were on their heels (they were 200,000 votes away), and now they have only 10 deputies in Congress. They believe that the way of negotiating the PP has contributed to resuscitate Citizens. Asked about this concern in the cadres of the game, García Egea simply said that alliance only worries him "on the left". The surveys are not promising for the PP. And on April 5, Alonso will no longer examine himself, but Casado.