So the spanish main right party, PP, has elected Pablo Casado as their successor to Rajoy, after he won the second round in the primaries 57 to 43 over Rajoy's right hand Soraya Saenz de Santamaría.
It's clearly a shift towards the right, with Casado expressing the desire of an increase in economically liberal policies. He promises to have no tolerance with separatists, promising to create stricter laws regarding the issue, if he ever becomes president of Spain, and vows to defend and promote a unionist spirit and agenda. While not a conservative himself, he has brought christian conservatives into his team over the last two weeks, and now promises to defend "life and family values".... personally I don't think he will do too much about this though, since the majority of the population is way past catholic conservative political practices ( for instance, when Rajoy tried to introduce stricter laws regarding abortion, he faced such a backlash that he had to remove his law proposal, despite having absolute parliamentary majority at the time), plus his team includes a few gay men. Regarding the EU, he supports greater free trade and integration, and has so far remained neutral towards immigration matters, which aren't really a hot topic here in Spain (despite us being the 5th country with the most asylum petitions) as immigrants here are generally well integrated.
I believe this is the end of Rajoy-ism (stability above all things, avoid confrontations as much as possible, try to keep things as they are, moderate economically liberal policies, appeasement over conflict, etc), and somewhat of a return to Aznar-ism (hard economically liberal policies, strong unionist agenda, controversial and politically risky moves and reforms, etc). I don't think he'll ever become president, because he antagonizes moderate voters, but as leader of PP, he will surely be a relevant part of spanish politics. I think it's a wrong move for PP to shift further right, because there aren't many voters to gain there. They'll likely recover some of the few voters that were planning to leave towards the alt-right party VOX, but no polls ever gave this party more than 0-2 seats in parliament, so it's not like they have much to gain there.
My main problem with this guy is that he has shapeshifted his ideals over time, and also climbed the political ladder inside his party by ass kissing and back stabbing. I really don't trust him, and he'll likely be a populist that will adjust his agenda to whatever goes in his personal favour.
It will be hard to see agreements between PP and PSOE with Casado in charge. Let's see what the centrist C's does, and which party they side with if they ever have to form a coalition with one of them.