Euphoria in Seville

The Popular Party's national convention in Seville has been a celebration of an electoral victory that has not yet taken place. Nothing unites a party like the anticipation of power. Trusting to the opinion polls, the national leadership of the PP staged a show of unity around the party leader, Mariano Rajoy.

Former Prime Minister José María Aznar, often critical of Rajoy, made use of an ostentatious embrace to neutralize the snub he inflicted on his successor at the convention in Valencia, when he hardly deigned to greet him, after the party's 2008 electoral defeat. Madrid regional premier Esperanza Aguirre also showed support for the PP leader in Seville that has not been forthcoming on many occasions: most recently, upon the former Public Works minister Álvarez-Cascos' announcement of his intention to head a regional slate alternative to the PP in Asturias. Even the ex-Interior Minister Jaime Mayor Oreja opted to back Rajoy, though without abandoning his obsessions, or his embarrassing, immoderate rhetoric.

This parade of unity around a leader whose leadership has been constantly questioned from within the party, as well as the fact that the convention has not announced one single measure that the PP would take if it formed a government, is convincing proof that the convention in Seville has been nothing more than a propaganda event.

Rajoy himself seemed aware of this, when he reiterated the desire that general elections be held as soon as possible. Such urgency at the convention, however, has so far found no reflection in his party's parliamentary behavior. A politician who sees the present state of things in a light as bleak as that expressed by Rajoy in Seville, would seem to be under an obligation to bring a non-confidence motion in parliament.

The emphasis on cohesion shows, in the contrary sense, how fragile such unity can be in a party convinced that it is in the waiting room of power. In reality the unity rests only on this conviction, not on any perception that Rajoy has consolidated his position as an unchallenged leader in seven years of opposition, nor on any agreement concerning a program. The opinion polls are clear on what the voters, even those of the PP, think about the conservative leader. The only threat that seems to hang over the PP's electoral expectations is the possibility of an economic upturn.

The Seville convention has revealed a somewhat tardy affection for a leader whose principal merit consists in having held out against attacks from his own party. Rajoy's talk of the "thirst for elections" that he thinks he perceives in Spanish society does in fact betray the thirst for power on which his party's unity is based.

Devoid of proposals to cope with the recession, and unabashedly demanding the support of voters it hopes will stay demoralized and willing to give it an electoral victory, the PP seems ready to spend the months that remain until the general elections without any program other than that of waiting to see its rival's corpse pass by. Something more substantial than embraces and smiles would be desirable, especially in the present situation.