People’s Party: fighting to keep right-wing hegemony in Spain through the Catalan crisis

After decades of undisputed hegemony among conservative voters in Spain, the People’s Party (PP) is fighting to put down growing right-wing rivalry ahead of a crucial general election, by doubling down on its hardline approach to Catalan independence.

On April 28, PP will head to the polls after one of its worst years since the foundations of the party were laid in 1977 by a former minister of dictator Francisco Franco.

Former Spanish president Mariano Rajoy resigned as the party head in July 2018, shortly after being ousted in a no-confidence vote. After surviving the financial crisis and Catalonia’s push for independence, it was a corruption scandal that dealt the final blow to his time in office.

The conservative party was convicted for benefitting from a bribery scheme in the so-called Gürtel case, and a long-fragmented opposition united to replace Rajoy and PP with a Socialist government led by Pedro Sánchez.

Rajoy quit politics, and the leadership vacuum was filled by a young hardliner named Pablo Casado.