When Alberto Núñez Feijóo announced the names of what would be his hard core in Genoa in May, two things quickly drew attention: the distribution of power between Galicians and Andalusians and the low presence of women. The two have been chronicled over time.
Of the seven main positions that Feijóo chose in the organizational pyramid of Genoa -Cuca Gamarra, Elías Bendodo, Esteban González Pons, Juan Bravo, Carmen Navarro, Pedro Rollán and Miguel Tellado- only two are women. But not only is the leadership of the PP mostly male, but the main voices of the party, who have gained media presence, are them. The only weighty female voice is Cuca Gamarrasecretary general and spokesperson in Congress.
Within the PP, an inequality was already being pointed out in the first line that the latest signings have ratified. Above all, the incorporation of Borja Sémper as (for now) spokesperson for the electoral campaign. Feijóo wants to make Sémper one of the party’s main references and has included him in the management committee, which anticipates that his responsibilities will go beyond May 28.
Thus, Sémper will join the usual rotation in the Genoa press room, where, with the position of national spokesperson eliminated, the party’s deputy secretaries share the lectern. Elías Bendodo is the most common face, along with Juan Bravo or Esteban González Pons, if economic or institutional issues marked the agenda.
It escapes no one that the starting squad is completely male
and inside the party critics have arisen. “There are many men”, recognizes a leader of the PP. Another popular charge also makes ugly this “absence of female voices” and ensures that it is a generalized perception. “There is a lack of women,” he insists. “It’s just that Cuca Gamarra is there”, says another source. “In the party there are many women, but in the front line it is true that now there are none,” says a woman with a relevant position within the PP.
Of 17 regional leaders, only four are women
Within the Genoa management committee they also recognize this inequality, but rule out that it will be reversed, at least in the short term, because neither more significant additions nor relevant changes are expected before the regional and municipal elections.
The image left by the presentation of regional PP candidates last Saturday in Zaragoza also showed the unequal representation of men and women in the most visible and powerful positions in the party. Only four of the seventeen territorial leaders of the PP are women: Isabel Díaz Ayuso in Madrid, Marga Prohens in the Balearic Islands, María José Sáenz de Buruaga in Cantabria and María Guardiola in Extremadura.
