BFF-50 New Spanish PM’s aide is former consultant for conservatives

566

ZCZC

BFF-50

SPAIN-POLITICS

New Spanish PM’s aide is former consultant for conservatives

MADRID, June 8, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Spain’s new Socialist Prime Minister Pedro
Sanchez has raised eyebrows by appointing as his chief of staff a political
consultant who previously worked with leaders of the conservative Popular
Party.

Ivan Redondo, 37, was one of the architects of the no-confidence motion
tabled by the Socialists which ousted conservative Mariano Rajoy from office
last week and replaced him with Sanchez.

After leading the Socialists to their worst ever results in general
elections in 2015 and 2016, Sanchez managed to convince far-left party
Podemos and tiny Catalan and Basque nationalist parties to back the no-
confidence motion.

It was sparked by fury over a damning court sentence for corruption
against Popular Party (PP) officials.

Redondo had predicted that graft scandals could catapult the Socialists to
power in a May 2017 post on his blog “The War Room”.

“Corruption is sinking the PP brand,” he wrote, adding, “if we focus on
the political chess that is coming we can see that there is a high
probability that Sanchez can become prime minister.”

“Either through a no-confidence motion (if there are more scandals at the
heart of the PP) or through early elections,” he added.

Redondo, a fan of chess, was chief of staff for the former PP head of the
regional government of Extremadura, Jose Antonio Monago, who governed between
2011 to 2015.

He also acted as a political consultant for the PP head in the northeastern
region of Catalonia, Xavier Garcia Albiol, helping him become mayor of the
seaside town of Badalona near Barcelona in 2011.

Albiol’s campaign was marked by controversy and saw him accused of
xenophobia for making statements such as “the Romanian gypsy community has
come to our city specifically to commit crimes”.

Sanchez, ousted as party leader in October 2016 by an internal rebellion,
hired Redondo as a consultant a year ago, when he was re-elected head of the
Socialists in a primary election.

Redondo has made a name for himself as a political analyst for several
Spanish media outlets, including private TV Antena 3 and newspapers Expansion
and El Mundo.

He founded his own political consultancy, Redondo & Asociados Public
Affairs Firm, in Madrid.

Redondo has defined a political spin doctor as “a person who throws
himself into a ravine for his client, his prime minister, his candidate”.

BSS/AFP/RY/1840 hrs