Salamanca opens another front in Castilla y León to the new PP of Feijóo

The president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, is summoned to testify as a witness after the complaint by some party affiliates about the non-convening of the provincial congress The Xunta investigates Fuenlabrada

The internal conflicts of the Salamanca PP have spilled over into Madrid.

The president of the party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, is summoned to testify at the hearing scheduled for Friday, January 20 in the city's Investigating Court 5 after the complaint by a sector of members critical of the delay in calling the provincial congress to elect the leaders of the formation in Salamanca.

Feijóo is summoned as legal representative of the PP to explain why the Salamanca section of his formation has been postponing said congress for almost two years.

In addition, the national PP, as a legal entity, is charged in the Primaries case, in relation to the alleged illegal financing in the Salamanca primaries of 2017, which the current regional president Alfonso Fernández Mañueco won.

The critical wing of the PP that has promoted this process considers that the statutes that guide this political group, now governed in Salamanca by a manager coordinated by the same previous leadership, have been violated.

These 147 affiliates of the approximately 1,000 that the PP has in the province demand in their demand that the judge adopt precautionary measures that would imply the holding of the congress, which could alter the current structure of the leadership.

The president of the PP from Salamanca, Francisco Javier Iglesias, resigned a little over a month ago, although he kept his position at the head of the Provincial Council.

Iglesias is a trusted man of Mañueco, who has his main stronghold in Salamanca, since he was mayor there between 2011 and 2018, before making the autonomous leap to govern in 2019 in coalition with Ciudadanos and since April 2022,

Sources from that critical sector explain that for them it is not a "tasteful dish" for Feijóo to go to court, although they suspect that in one way or another the former Galician leader will avoid the image of entering a court.

The view would be public, according to judicial sources, as it is a civil matter.

One way for the head of the opposition not to come to declare is for the PP, surprisingly, to convene congress and the plaintiffs withdraw their demand, something that they see as unlikely due to the proximity of the municipal elections: "With congress there is no demand , but the order has to come from Madrid because their noses are swollen, it is hurting the party, ”says the same source.

Another option is for the Salamanca PP to challenge the process and extend the time.

Feijóo received the summons on January 5.

"It is a civil case and the judge would not impose a penalty if Feijóo does not come or send his lawyer, but socially it would be ugly," appreciates this source, who regrets that the case has become "the talk" of the city.

Even so, they insist that the violation of the internal norm of the party requires such a reaction.

"The PP is working with great urgency, with an attitude just in

they are speeding up meetings and talking with candidates", detail these affiliates, who see how the current command deals with "anxiety" to be hypothetically removed from power.

All this, they say, would not have happened "if Mañueco were humble" and had accepted "a change of cycle with new faces to work together in the same direction" instead of castling himself with his like-minded people.

Echoes of the 'Primary case'

Salamanca has become an unfavorable territory for the PP due to its open judicial processes.

Added to the matter of the congress is the investigation opened for alleged irregular financing in the 2017 primaries that exalted Mañueco.

The judge in the

observes possible irregular financing because there are some 24,000 euros, of the more than 60,000 collected, of unknown origin and that were collected to pay the debts of affiliates in a situation of non-payment so that they could recover their right to vote in this internal process that Manueco ended up winning.

The magistrate accused Francisco Javier Iglesias as provincial president of the party;

the manager, Raquel Sánchez;

and the PP as a legal person.

Last week, the judge working on this alleged episode of illegal financing has once again required the Court of Accounts to provide a report that ruled out the crime, a document that did not reach the Prosecutor's Office despite its request.

The magistrate has appreciated that "supposedly" that letter was sent from the Court and has indicated that "there is no signature in said document, neither handwritten nor digital nor encrypted".

Therefore, he begs that it be sent "duly legalized and signed, or certify the authenticity of the copy provided, or report what is appropriate in relation to the veracity of it."

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