A year ago the Popular Party, with its baronies and a good part of its leadership at the helm, politically deposed the leader. Pablo Casado, the first president of the PP elected in an imitation of double-round primaries against Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, and was replaced by Alberto Núñez Feijóo. In that painful and sudden process, some fell, others rose, and some others knew how to remain protected in a comfortable silence and in an even more comfortable and lucrative inactivity. The paradigmatic case is that of the person who was the indisputable right-hand man of the overthrown chief: Teodoro García Egea.
The number two of Casado and former secretary general of the PP maintains, a year after the fall of the leader and the end of a stage in which he imposed his designs on the formation with an iron hand, his seat in the Congress of Deputies. García Egea did not follow the example of Pablo Montesinos: he preferred to keep the record and... the salary.
Teodoro came to Congress in 2012 to replace Jaime García Legaz and remains there against all odds. He doesn't make noise, you can hardly see him and his work as a member of the Popular Group has an encephalogram close to flat. This Thursday he went to vote but he avoided the journalists who were interested in his impressions on the first anniversary of the great popular crisis.
Despite everything, García Egea was promoted by the new management last July to chair the Road Safety Commission of Congress. It is not a flashy position by any means. It is a permanent commission but not a legislative one, which takes away a lot of shot power. Its last meeting was on November 30 and, for now, there is no further scheduled agenda. This is not an impediment, however, for the members of his Board to collect the bonus that is stipulated in the Economic Regime of the Chamber and that, in the case of García Egea, is the highest due to his status as president.
According to the table of remuneration of the deputies, increased in this exercise by 3.5%, the former number two of Pablo Casado receives 3,126 euros monthly as an identical constitutional allowance for all the lordships. It is what is understood as base salary. To this he adds compensation, free of taxes, of 2,008 euros for being a deputy for a province other than Madrid (Murcia) and, in addition, he adds a bonus for representation expenses in his capacity as commission president of another 1,590 euros. In total, 6,724 euros per month that are completed with a card for transport expenses of 3,000 euros per year. Of course, if for work reasons he has to travel, the corresponding allowances are added.
As in any loss of power, the public disappearance of Teodoro García Egea was also joined by his dismissal in Congress, embodied in the change of location of his seat. The former general secretary of the PP has gone from sitting in the first line, next to Cuca Gamarra and close to Pablo Casado, to being in the fourth row, blurred among the popular deputies. In this new place, time passes discreetly when he goes to plenary, basically to vote, since it is far from the camera shot and the usual snapshots that photographers take of the leaders of the groups. His new teammates are Juan Diego Requena and César Sánchez. He is close to Antonio González Terol, another one he sent back.
The last time that García Egea raised the microphone from his seat to speak before the Plenary Session of Congress was on February 16, 2022 in the government control session. On that occasion, he addressed the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, to ask her about the proposed tax increase for workers and took the opportunity to refer to the victory of the PP, the previous Sunday, in the Castilla y León elections and the Oltra case accusing Diaz to look the other way. It was 9:50 a.m.
A week later, on February 23, when the time bomb ticked down in the ranks of the PP, the then Secretary General resigned from speaking in the Hemicycle as scheduled and was replaced by his seat mate Diego Movellán. The question that García Egea transferred to him in inheritance was also addressed to Yolanda Díaz: "Does the second vice president consider that this Government adequately defends the rights of the self-employed?"
Just 27 minutes before, Pablo Casado left the Hemicycle never to return, after meeting the President of the Government for the last time. "How much more is he willing to give up to his pro-independence partners to continue in Moncloa?"
Casado actually spent his time threading a farewell speech: «I understand politics from the defense of the noblest principles and values, from respect for adversaries and dedication to colleagues, all to serve Spain and the cause of freedom, because that is the future that our children deserve and that we must all build together». He left the Chamber surrounded by the applause of his standing bench and followed by three deputies: Ana Beltrán, Antonio González Terol and Pablo Montesinos. The first two retain the act of deputy. The night of the long knives awaited Casado in Genoa.
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