Álvarez-Cascos' press conference

The once all-powerful secretary general of the Popular Party (PP) under the government of José María Aznar, Francisco Álvarez-Cascos, has just set off a tempest in a teapot within his party. Behind a shield of rhetoric about service to the region of Asturias, which barely suffices to dissemble the frustration of his personal political ambitions, Álvarez-Cascos has announced his resignation from the party now led by Mariano Rajoy, and has insinuated that he may create a new political force to run as a candidate for premier of Asturias in the regional elections in May.

It is hardly surprising that a man who was among the chief protagonists of unscrupulous "anything goes" tactics, both in opposition and in government, should now be turning his methods on his own party.

During his years in the limelight, Álvarez-Cascos exacerbated tensions in Spanish political life almost to the limits of institutional stability, attacking his adversaries with instruments that disdained the most elementary democratic rules of the game. His attempt to return to active politics, rejected by the national leadership of his party, does not reflect a desire to offer a different program to the Asturians, but only an urge to satiate his thirst for power after years of abstinence. In the press conference he held to explain his reasons for leaving the party he offered glimpses of power struggles and vendettas, but not of even a single idea upon which he might propose to build a political program.

The internal, in-party democracy that Álvarez-Cascos is now demanding was nowhere to be seen as long as he held the reins. But even if it seems a joke to see Álvarez-Cascos suddenly and uncharacteristically calling for in-party democracy, the demand is none the less a reasonable one. The PP has resorted to co-option — that is, appointment from within the leadership circle — to decide who will be the premiership candidate in Asturias, persisting in a method that it applies at all levels, municipal and regional. And at the national level, too — as witnessed by Mariano Rajoy, appointed party president by a personal decision of his predecessor in the post.

The present adventure of Álvarez-Cascos seems unlikely to prosper, not only on account of the shabby reasons that are its driving force, but also due to the moment he has chosen to launch it. A party that now sees itself in the very anteroom of power will tend to close ranks behind its leadership, and not to erode its electoral expectations by conspicuous internal struggles. If the PP now finds itself in this position, it is due to Álvarez-Cascos' way of looking at politics, but also to the fragility of Rajoy's leadership. Regional leaders such as the Madrid premier are quick to exploit any opportunity to challenge him.

Álvarez-Cascos has, with this sole action, at least succeeded in showing us the internal reality of a party that considers itself to be on the eve of forming a government. The tempest, and the teapot in which it is raging, have the diagnostic value of symptoms. These are forces that uneasily coexist within the PP, and this is the style in which they settle their differences.