National
More calls for reflection in the Partido Popular
By h.b.
May 13, 2008 - 7:31 AM

The decision of the President of the Partido Popular in the Basque Country, Maria San Gil, to stand down from PP steering committees has had a considerable knock-on effect in the party where she has considerable support.

Ana Botella, Deputy for Madrid and wife of the previous Prime Minister, José María Aznar, is among those to come out in full support for San Gil, and she joined a call made by the PP regional leader in Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, for a greater reflection in the party. Botella described the PP in the Basque Country as a moral reference for the party as a whole.

Today El Mundo publishes a claim that Maria San Gil has rejected the request for support from the PP leader Mariano Rajoy, because she considers that there is an ‘underlying problem’ in the party, which she fears that Rajoy wants to simply put away in a drawer.

She claims that she has had to make a ‘titanic’ effort to defend the traditional position of the party in the face of ETA and the nationalists, in difference to Rajoy’s delegate, José María Lasalle. San Gil considers that Rajoy is now sunk and is guilty of ‘seeding division’ in the party.

When asked for his opinion about the crisis in the Partido Popular, the Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, declined to comment. ‘I’m no expert’, he said.