The last government elections in Spain has brought the deepest crisis in the second most important political party in this country, the Popular Party (PP), led by Mariano Rajoy.

Since March 11, one day after the general elections, the conservative party, which unites former fascists to libertarian ideologists, has fallen into a semantic internal war.

In one side, is the right wing of the party led by Esperanza Aguirre, president of the prosperous Madrid Community, in the other, Mariano Rajoy, who after the two consecutive defeats has decided to moderate the ideology of his party.

For many, the lessons from the last elections, that resulted in the second victory for Rodriguez Zapatero, leader of Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party(PSOE), is that no party who threatens the autonomic or nationalist aspirations of the Basque country and Catalonia could aspire to run the country.

In the last elections, the difference between both parties was just 3.5 % of the votes. But in Spain, a constitutional Monarchy with a parliamentary system, this percent means 15 seats in the parliament.
Even so, these 15 seats out of a total of 350 is not a big difference, but both communities, Catalonia and Basque Country, choose 57 congressmen, of which PP could just have 10 representatives.

The other positions were shared between PSOE and small but important nationalist parties who are working together to ban the possibility of PP get the presidency of the congress and the government.
The incessant criticisms of PP against “El Estatut”, Statute of autonomy of Catalonia, which was defined for some members of PP like the hammer which will “break Spain”and the point-blank shot to the failed peace process between the Socialist Government and the terrorist Basque organization ETA, has almost eliminated any sympathy for the PP in these regions.

Furthermore, the comments of many members of the PP to invalidate the legislation related with the same sex marriage bill and some speeches which linked the immigration with the rise of criminal actions have undermined the possibility of PP to gain votes in other minorities.

The support of PP, concentrated almost in the centre of the country and Valencia, represents little more than the 40 % of the total electorate population.

However the political strategy developed by PP, focused in the conflict and radical criticisms, has made the Conservative Party unable to gain more support.

The ex director of communication and political marketing of the PP, Gabriel Elorriaga, admitted that the objective of the past communication campaign was to increase absenteeism because the current political status of PP was too radical to attract votes.

In this scenario, Rajoy has decided to move the party to moderate positions searching for the best options to win the next elections.
However, the “falcons’ of PP lead by Esperanza Aguirre, supported by the strong and powerful right wing media like “El Mundo” newspaper and the Catholic radio corporation COPE, has condemned the new policies of Rajoy, and many call for his resignation.

Nobody knows how this “civil war” inside the Popular Party will end, many talk about the division in two parties, others in the transformation of the party into a radical right party or into a centrist party.
The only certainty in this story is the PSOE, who face the international economic crisis and revival of ETA, has one less problem.

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