No one has been surprised by a victory that was predicted from the beginning of the contest. The Conservative Party of the United Kingdom has confirmed this Monday that Liz Truss is the winner in the internal primary process that began at the end of July. The current Foreign Minister has prevailed over her rival, former Economy Minister Rishi Sunak, with more than 81,000 votes from Tory affiliates, compared to the more than 60,000 who have supported the politician of Indian descent. 57.4% support, a comfortable figure, but lower than that of previous winners, such as Boris Johnson or David Cameron, who exceeded the 60% threshold. The Conservative Party has closed a summer full of division and wounds with the tribute of Truss herself to the most popular politician in the United Kingdom in recent decades: “Boris, you culminated Brexit, you crushed Jeremy Corbyn [el anterior líder del Partido Laborista], you deployed the vaccine campaign. And you stood up to Vladimir Putin. You are admired from kyiv to Carlisle [Reino Unido]”, he said in his victory speech. It will be this Tuesday when the relief in Downing Street is formalized, and Truss occupies in Downing Street the position that Boris Johnson held until now on an interim basis, after his resignation on July 7. But his work team has spent days preparing the first decision of the new Government: a package of direct aid to citizens to deal with the enormous energy crisis facing the United Kingdom. The details of the measure, which the new prime minister will finalize throughout the week, are unknown, but what has been leaked to the media so far points to the imposition of a limit on household gas and electricity bills, which the Government would subsequently compensate the supply companies. The British regulatory body, OFGEM, already announced more than a week ago that bills would increase by more than 80% this winter, in the case of domestic consumption. For small and medium-sized companies, the expense can spell ultimate ruin. The package of measures that the Truss team is preparing would be similar, in scale, to the aid that the Johnson government put on the table during the pandemic to avoid layoffs. massive: the so-called Job Retention Scheme, very similar to the ERTE in Spain. Truss’ core trust —Kwasi Kwarteng, the current Secretary of State for Business, is emerging as the new Minister of the Economy— has understood the need to put emergency aid on the table from day one, to try to soften the debacle foreseen by the energy crisis. But that does not mean that they give up a strongly ideological program in which they intend to cut taxes, despite galloping inflation, with the apparent hope of thereby promoting a new strong economic cycle. Return to the famous “Laffer curve”, the “reaganomics” —the ultraliberal economic recipes of the Ronald Reagan Administration in the United States of the eighties—, and a fanatical voluntarism, obsessed with reducing the role of the State. Liz Truss is congratulated by her husband, Hugh O’Leary, before the other candidate, Rishi Sunak, this Monday. Stefan Rousseau (Cordon Press) Join EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without limits. Subscribe Many militants have not forgiven Sunak for his “betrayal ”, by promoting the collapse of the Johnson Government with an abrupt resignation. No one disputes his ability and preparation, not even the seriousness with which he has raised during the primary campaign the urgent need to stand up to inflation, before happily launching himself to lower taxes, as promised by his rival Truss. But many conservatives have been seduced by the candidate’s strongly ideological discourse; in the face of his vindication of Johnson’s most polarizing legacy —Brexit, immigration, heavy defense spending…— and in the face of a tactic very similar to that of the most popular conservative prime minister of recent decades: promising citizens a future of roses, without clarifying how it intends to achieve it. “Lie to me, tell me you love me,” Johnny asked Vienna in the movie Johnny Guitar. The Conservative Party has asked Truss to promise a new electoral victory, in the next two years, despite the fact that all the circumstances are conjured today against that possibility. The handover of power The ritual is important, and the transfer of power will take place this Tuesday. Boris Johnson will deliver his farewell speech outside the gate of 10 Downing Street, before flying on an RAF (British Air Force) plane to Scotland’s Aberdeen airport. From there, to Balmoral Castle, where he will communicate his resignation to Elizabeth II and suggest the name of Truss to replace him. In 70 years of reign, it is the first time that the 96-year-old monarch performs this ritual – the same as with 14 former prime ministers—at their summer residence, and not at London’s Buckingham Palace. “Mobility problems”, as explained by the British Royal House, have forced the change of plans. Truss will also travel there, shortly after, in another RAF plane. Security reasons force them to travel separately. The queen will ask the successor to form a government on her behalf. Back in Downing Street, around five o’clock on Tuesday afternoon, Spanish peninsular time, the new British head of government will deliver her first speech to the media and the nation, again in front of Downing Street’s iconic black wooden door. The recently inaugurated Conservative government will begin to work in a week that the meteorological services foresee full of storms. The storm that Truss will have to weather from the first minute in command will be enormous. The skyrocketing energy prices, with bills that are going to practically double; a looming recession, announced by the Bank of England; a potential conflict with Brussels, on account of the Northern Ireland Protocol that she herself was in charge of scrapping as Foreign Minister; and an autumn and winter plagued by labor unrest —the first signs were seen this summer—, with strikes announced in most public sectors. Last week, Truss gathered the nucleus of his collaborators in the majestic country house in Chevening, in the county of Kent – the summer residence usually used by the Foreign Secretary – to prepare a landing plan in the Government. There will be no grace period, neither 100 nor 10 days, for the new conservative prime minister. The fourth in more than a decade that has seen the UK economy slow down, Brexit poison the country and depreciate its trade potential, and Johnson’s promises to redistribute wealth between regions remain a dead letter. There are officially two years left for new general elections to be called. Very soon it will be known if Johnson’s successor achieves the miracle of turning around electoral expectations, today disastrous for the conservatives, or is limited to managing the definitive defeat. Follow all the international information on Facebook and Twitter, or in our newsletter weekly.