CÁDIZ, Spain — Merkelism is dead. In Spain at least.

The conservative Popular Party has a new leader who's vowed to steer the party to the right in a bid to make Socialist Pedro Sánchez the country's shortest-serving prime minister.

Pablo Casado ran for the party leadership promising to take a hard line against Catalan separatists and pushing a conservative agenda on social issues. He promises a far more confrontational style than that of the man he'll replace, Mariano Rajoy, who was ousted as prime minister in June after losing a confidence motion in parliament, a political shock that prompted the conservative leadership contest.

Casado's strategy worked. On Saturday, a PP congress in Madrid chose him ahead of former Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, who was seen as more of a continuity candidate.

“The DNA of the PP is not to negotiate with the separatists” — Pablo Casado

“We have the opportunity to enlarge the center right and elections are won there,” Sáenz de Santamaría said in a radio interview before the final choice was made. “Our party shouldn’t go to any corner.”

PP members disagreed.

Aged just 37, Casado is not only a fresh face at the top of the scandal-hit PP, but also has an approach that's far removed from that of Rajoy, who often mirrored Angela Merkel by promoting an image of solid, technocratic management while trying to avoid ideological battles.

“This is the party of life and family,” Casado told party delegates Saturday, as he called for scrapping a legal reform that makes it easier for women to get abortions — a Socialist measure that Rajoy left in place.

Casado also made stepping up the fight against Catalan independence a cornerstone of his campaign.

“The DNA of the PP is not to negotiate with the separatists,” Casado, who studied law and business in Madrid, told a rally during the campaign. He also suggested judicial reforms to punish future independence challenges.

When a German court ruled that former Catalan regional President Carles Puigdemont shouldn’t face the charge of rebellion if sent back to Spain, Casado said he wouldn’t tolerate such a “humiliation to national sovereignty,” suggesting the EU's Schengen free movement zone be scrapped.

PP on the slide

Casado, born in Palencia in northern Spain and a father of two, inherits a party that's the biggest political force in the national parliament but faces a tough job getting back into power.

He must try and topple Sánchez's Socialists, who rose to power thanks to an unlikely coalition — labeled “Frankenstein” by rivals — with the far-left Podemos, two Catalan pro-independence groups and a Basque nationalist party, all of which had refused to endorse him for the premiership in the past.

At the same time, however, Casado must keep a close eye on the liberal Ciudadanos party, which has been taking in a constant stream of PP defectors and is currently neck-and-neck with the conservatives in most polls.

“We need to go back to recovering our electoral base,” Casado said in his victory speech on Saturday. “I’m going after Ciudadanos’ voters,” he said during the campaign.

The electoral calendar doesn't help Casado and the PP. Spain will hold a general election by 2020 at the latest, but the country faces local, regional and European elections in May 2019.

Narciso Michavila, head of pollster GAD3, said the Socialists are on track to win the local elections, which would provide “a big boost for Sánchez,” adding that Ciudadanos looks in a stronger position than three years ago.

An average of recent polls by Electocracia has the Socialists in the lead with 26 percent — a rise of around 5 points from two months ago — followed by the PP with 23 percent, Ciudadanos on 22 percent and Podemos on 18 percent.

Stain of corruption

Corruption was behind the eventual downfall of Rajoy.

The Socialists launched their move to oust him following a court ruling in which 29 people, including former senior officials from the PP, were sentenced to a total of 351 years in prison for corruption.

Sánchez accused his conservative rival of asking Spaniards to accept corruption “as a chronic illness that you want to heal by looking to the other side.”

Dozens more old corruption cases involving PP officials are set to come to trial in the coming months and years.

Pablo Simón, a politics professor at Madrid's Carlos III University, said Casado will present himself as a clean break with the problems of the past.

Casado became the PP's vice secretary for communications in 2015 as part of an attempt by Rajoy to rejuvenate the party with a few fresh faces. In that role, he had to deal with the press on a constant stream of corruption scandals, something he put to use in the leadership contest by arguing that he's worked hard for the party (while adding that he has never met the officials who were under fire).

Casado will also have to heal his party’s wounds.

However, opponents reckon Casado will go too far in his efforts to move away from the Rajoy years.

A senior official from the Socialists said Casado’s victory is good news: “He will corner the PP on the right and that will also drag Ciudadanos, which is competing for the same electorate, meaning the PSOE will have free room on the center.”

An official in the leadership of Ciudadanos said Casado will probably “go too far” to the right, “and there are no voters over there.”

Manuel Arias, a politics professor at the University of Malaga, said candidates often strike a tougher tone in internal elections before moderating their views when facing the wider electorate.

But he predicted that Casado will maintain a line of “uninhibited right” and “a polarizing front against the left,” while keeping his distance from Rajoy’s “moderation.”

“His instinct is not without reason,” Arias argued, pointing out the recent troubles faced by the similarly moderation-minded Merkel. Arias said it's unlikely that Sánchez will get into big economic trouble before the election — as there simply isn't time — so Casado will have to make clear to voters what the differences between the parties are.

Casado will also have to heal his party’s wounds. The first ever internal contest to elect a national leader left the PP divided, with 57 percent voting for Casado's promised changes and 42 percent choosing continuity.

If he doesn't bridge that gap, it could benefit Ciudadanos, particularly at the local level, where the liberals lack weight.

That’s what happened in the province of Jaen in Andalusia. After a disputed internal election in May 2017, a handful of PP mayors announced this year that they intend to run for Ciudadanos in the 2019 local ballot.

Another problem for Casado could come in the form of a judicial inquiry into whether he broke the law and obtained his master’s degree from a Madrid university unfairly. It's alleged that he was given good marks without going to class and sitting for exams. That investigation is ongoing.