National
Mariano Rajoy takes control of the Partido Popular
By h.b. - Nov 4, 2009 - 7:14 AM
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Mariano Rajoy - EFE
The leader made a call for unity at a meeting of the party executive, but Esperanza Aguirre did not even attend
At the meeting of the Partido Popular National Executive on Tuesday, leader Mariano Rajoy took firm control of the party following the recent public rows and splits over the Gürtel case and who will be the new Chairman of the Caja Madrid savings bank.
‘It won’t happen again’ was his message.
He said it was unacceptable that a party activist could say they were not an alternative to the Government, in reference to Manuel Cobo, the Madrid Deputy Mayor, who published a critical interview in El País last week. The decision on what punishment, if any, to hand down to Cobo is still to be taken however.
Rajoy made it clear he was the leader, and he did not want to see any more spectacles. He also threatened to take anyone who acts with a lack of loyalty off the candidate lists, in a comment directed at the Madrid regional president, Esperanza Aguirre, who stayed away from the meeting. Yesterday she complained that ‘the victim was being treated in the same way as the aggressor’.
The press considers the war in the Madrid party will continue, and in these times of recession the new revelation that the party’s National Secretary, María Dolores de Cospedal, has three wages and earns 120,000 € a year, will hardly win the party any votes. She collects her wages as Senator, another as party General Secretary, and another as a state lawyer. Last year he tax return indicated she earned 165,000 €.