20th National Congress Of The People's Party (Spain)

The People's Party (PP) held its 20th national congress (of extraordinary nature) in Seville from 1 to 2 April 2022, to renovate its governing bodies—including the post of president, which amounted to that of party leader. A primary election to elect the new party president was held on 21 March. The congress was called following the forced ousting of both Pablo Casado as president and Teodoro García Egea as secretary-general in the aftermath of a major crisis that ravaged the party from 16 to 23 February. Galician president Alberto Núñez Feijóo became the party's new president.

Following her landslide victory in the 4 May 2021 regional election, Madrilenian president Isabel Díaz Ayuso came to be increasingly seen by some within the party as a better leader than Casado to face off Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in the next Spanish general election. A conflict started from September 2021 onwards when Ayuso rushed for the control of the party's regional branch in the Community of Madrid, with such a move being seen by Casado's supporters as an immediate threat to his national leadership. Following several months of a poor and erratic leadership on Casado's behalf and a disappointing party result in the self-imposed 2022 Castilian-Leonese regional election, the crisis entered a new stage on 16 February 2022 when some media revealed an alleged plot of García Egea's allies to investigate Ayuso's family in search of compromising material—more specifically, alleged influence peddling in the awarding of public contracts to Ayuso's brother. After several days of public infighting between both Casado and Ayuso, Feijóo was reported as having agreed with the latter and other party regional presidents to become the party's new leader and replace Casado, whose incoming resignation and that of García Egea were announced on 22 February after they were publicly abandoned by most of their party's colleagues.

The congress slogan was "Lo haremos bien" (). On 18 March 2022, it was announced that 41,681 PP members had registered to vote in the primary election scheduled for 21 March.

Overview

The congress of the PP was the party's supreme body, and could be of either ordinary or extraordinary nature, depending on whether it was held following the natural end of its term or due to any other exceptional circumstances not linked to this event. Ordinary congresses were to be held every four years and called at least two months in advance of their celebration, though this timetable could be altered for up to twelve months in the event of coincidence with electoral processes. Extraordinary congresses had to be called by a two-thirds majority of the Board of Directors at least one-and-a-half month in advance of their celebration, though in cases of "exceptional urgency" this deadline could be reduced to 30 days.

The president of the PP was the party's head and the person holding the party's political and legal representation, and presided over its board of directors and executive committee, which were the party's maximum directive, governing and administration bodies between congresses.

Electoral system

The election of the PP president was based on a two-round system. Any party member with at least one-year membership was eligible for the post of party president, on the condition that they were up to date with the payment of party fees and that they were able to secure the signed endorsements of at least 100 party members. The election was to be held in the party's 60 constituencies, corresponding to each province and island of Spain.

In the first round, all registered party members who had their payment fees up to date were allowed to vote for any of the candidates who had been officially proclaimed by virtue of securing the required number of signatures to run. In the event that no candidate won the first round outright—which required securing at least 50 percent of the national vote, being the most voted candidate in at least half of the constituencies and at least a 15-percentage point advantage over the runner-up—a second round would be held concurrently with the party congress, in which party delegates would elect the new party leader from among the two candidates who had previously received the most votes in the first round. Most of the delegates were to be elected by party members concurrently with the first round of voting to the party leadership.

Timetable

The key dates are listed below (all times are CET. Note that the Canary Islands use WET (UTC+0) instead):

*1 March: Official announcement of the congress. Start of application period for party members to register in order to participate in the leadership election.
*8 March: Start of candidate submission period at 12 am.
*9 March: End of candidate submission period at 8 pm.
*10 March: Proclamation of candidates to the party presidency.
*11 March: Official start of internal electoral campaigning.
*16 March: Deadline for party members to register for voting at 2 pm.
*16 March: Deadline for party members to apply as delegates at 2 pm.
*20 March: Last day of internal electoral campaigning.
*21 March: Primary election (first round of voting, with all registered party members entitled to vote for the proclaimed candidates) and election of congress delegates.
*1−2 April: Party congress (if needed, a run-off voting was to be held among delegates to elect the party leader among the two most voted candidates in the first round).

Candidates

Declined

The individuals in this section were the subject of speculation about their possible candidacy, but publicly denied or recanted interest in running:

File:Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo 2019 (cropped).jpg,
File:Pablo Casado 2021 (cropped).jpg,
File:Isabel Díaz Ayuso 2021 (cropped).jpg,
File:José Luis Martínez-Almeida 2019b (cropped).jpg,
File:Juan Manuel Moreno 2022 (cropped).jpg,

*Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo (age ) — Member of the Congress of Deputies for Madrid ; Member of the Congress of Deputies for Barcelona ; Spokesperson of the People's Parliamentary Group in the Congress .
*Pablo Casado (age ) — Member of the Congress of Deputies for Madrid ; President of the PP ; Leader of the Opposition of Spain ; Member of the Congress of Deputies for Ávila ; Deputy Secretary-General of Communication of the PP ; President of NNGG in the Community of Madrid ; Member of the Assembly of Madrid .
*Isabel Díaz Ayuso (age ) — President of the Community of Madrid ; Member of the Assembly of Madrid ; Spokesperson of the People's Group in the Assembly of Madrid ; Deputy Minister of the Presidency and Justice of the Community of Madrid .
*José Luis Martínez-Almeida (age ) — Mayor of Madrid ; City Councillor of Madrid ; National Spokesperson of the PP ; Spokesperson of the People's Group in Madrid ; Director-General of Artistic Heritage of the Community of Madrid .
* Juanma Moreno (age ) — President of the Regional Government of Andalusia ; Member of the Parliament of Andalusia for Málaga ; President of the PP of Andalusia ; Senator appointed by the Parliament of Andalusia ; Secretary of State of Social Services and Equality of Spain ; Coordinator of Regional and Local Policy of the PP ; Member of the Congress of Deputies for Málaga ; Member of the Congress of Deputies for Cantabria ; President of NNGG ; City Councillor of Málaga .

Endorsements

Candidates seeking to run were required to collect the endorsements of at least 100 party members.

Opinion polls

Poll results are listed in the tables below in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first, and using the date the survey's fieldwork was done, as opposed to the date of publication. If such date is unknown, the date of publication is given instead. The highest percentage figure in each polling survey is displayed in bold, and the background shaded in the candidate's colour. In the instance of a tie, the figures with the highest percentages are shaded. Polls show data gathered among PP voters/supporters as well as Spanish voters as a whole, but not among party members, who were the ones ultimately entitled to vote in the primary election.

PP voters

Spanish voters

Results

Primary

Congress

Notes

References

;Opinion poll sources

;Other

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