PP barons see Ayuso's approach as "a mistake" because it "doesn't help the message be effective," and Moncloa celebrates it.

On Thursday, the PP's national leadership presented its 11 regional presidents with an idea: that they should all call for elections at the Conference of Presidents, to demonstrate the "regional power" of a party that governs 71% of Spaniards in those territories. They wanted to send a message with significant discourse, yes, but also an institutional one. The barons discussed it among themselves and thought it was a good idea. "We were going to win the narrative against housing and earpieces," one of those involved told this newspaper.

The strategy was to make a splash 48 hours before a demonstration in which Alberto Núñez Feijóo will call for the end of the Sánchez era. So they did, one by one, and it was indeed the most politically significant move of the day, but not the one that garnered the most attention. Media attention focused most intensely on the clashes between the president of the Community of Madrid and the Minister of Health and, above all, with the Basque Lehendakari, Imanol Pradales, and the president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Salvador Illa.

Ayuso left the room during the latter two's speeches in Basque and Catalan, a gesture that didn't sit well with her own colleagues. Some of them, consulted by EL MUNDO, considered it "a mistake" because it contributed to "drifting the narrative" in the direction La Moncloa wanted. All the PP leaders share Ayuso's criticism of the use of earpieces in a closed-door meeting between leaders who speak the same language, but many don't view the Madrid president's manner and "deliberate protagonism" as positive.

"She shouldn't have stood up. I think what she did to the Minister of Health was phenomenal: she bravely asked her if she was going to give two kisses to "a murderer," but leaving the room at a Conference of Presidents is seeking a spotlight that doesn't belong to her," one of the PP regional presidents privately judges. "In the end, she's looking for the spotlight, that's all. She announced it and she did it. It was a deliberate spotlight, not an improvised one," he analyzes.

In other Popular Party districts, they complain that her message has been somewhat overshadowed by Ayuso's gestures, but above all, they regret that there hasn't been complete institutional unity of action. Ten of the 11 PP presidents chose not to make the snub.

"It's a mistake, because if Rueda then speaks a little in Galician and Prohens and Mazón in Catalan, as they have done, there are many people who don't understand it," notes another of the presidents. He means that Ayuso does approve of the greeting being delivered briefly in the co-official language, but not the entire speech. And this nuance doesn't easily permeate the general public, which is more likely to accept the total snub.

"We've handled this issue poorly. A little more coordination between us would have been desirable," explain regional sources. "We knew the government wanted to discuss the earpieces because they've already seen in Congress that it generates a lot of debate. They do it to divide, and we shouldn't get involved in that discussion," they add.

"It was a question of the effectiveness of the message," not of differences between barons. "Leaving the table doesn't help our message be effective," concludes another of the leaders consulted.

In La Moncloa, they celebrate the tensions at the Conference because they believe they have "fractured the PP." "Ayuso has kicked the board, including the PP's. There are no demonstrations in Badajoz against Catalan; people don't care, they don't hate co-official languages. What has happened in no way harms us, because socialists and progressives have a strong support for linguistic plurality in their DNA." "And yet, Rueda or Prohens defend plurality and use co-official languages. It has put them in a difficult situation," they conclude.