The call requires the support of two thirds of the National Board of Directors, made up of more than 300 members
The extraordinary Congress of the PP requested by some senior officials and barons of the party to seek a way out of the internal war unleashed between Casado and Díaz Ayuso requires a two-thirds majority of support in the National Board of Directors for its convocation, according to the statutes of the match. In addition, given that at least one month is set from its call to its celebration, an urgent conclave to settle the future of Casado could not be held before next spring, which begins on March 21.
Faced with the deep crisis that the PP is going through, there are more and more voices that consider that only an extraordinary congress can end the “irreparable damage” that is being done to the formation and visualize an image of renewal and unity, either with a new national leadership or with another leader.
The president of the Xunta de Galicia, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has already dropped the possibility of convening this urgent congress if this “bleeding” is not resolved, since the next ordinary meeting, scheduled for July, is already too far away.
The statutes of the PP indicate that the celebration of an extraordinary congress requires a previous debate, established in the agenda of the National Board of Directors and the final resolution to convene must be adopted by a majority of two thirds of its more than 300 members. .
The National Board of Directors is the highest body between congresses and can be convened by the president. But if he resists, it can also be done exceptionally by agreement of another internal body: the National Executive Committee at the request of three fifths of its members. That is, 31 of the 51 members.
the alternate path
Specifically, the members of the aforementioned Executive Committee (51) form part of the National Board of Directors; the 30 members elected in the last national congress; deputies, senators and members of the European Parliament; the regional, provincial and insular presidents of the party; the regional presidents or, failing that, the spokespersons in the regional Assemblies; the presidents of provincial councils, councils and island councils and the mayors of provincial capitals and regional capitals; the regional presidents of New Generations, its general secretary and nine other members; the government ministers who are affiliated with the PP or the European commissioners.
In addition to promoting the change of the leadership in a national congress, the Board of Directors can also “approve or censure the action carried out” by the Executive Committee and by the Board itself (article 34). For its part, the Executive Committee, of which the territorial leaders are a part, also has among its functions that of appointing the general secretaries and other officials without the need to go to an urgent congress.
In any case, if this conclave is convened, the debate of papers will not be mandatory. This was the case at the meeting held in July 2018 to elect Mariano Rajoy’s successor after a primary process, in which Casado prevailed over former Vice President Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría with 57% of the votes of the delegates, 1,701, against to something more than 42% and 1,250 supports of his rival. This despite the fact that the militancy (60,000 members) supported the candidacy of Sáenz de Santamaría.