The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, in one of Sánchez's meetings with the presidents of the Autonomous Communities DIEGO SINOVA / EFE
La Moncloa's coup in full tension due to the worsening of the pandemic in Madrid.
Shortly after the vice president of this Community, Ignacio Aguado, from Ciudadanos, asked the central government for help, Pedro Sánchez has decided to send a letter to the president of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, of the PP, in which he tells him that he has decided organize an appointment with her at her office, at the headquarters of the Community of Madrid, and not at La Moncloa, given the lack of control of the figures in what is already the epicenter of the crisis in Spain and Europe.
The letter is a declaration of intentions, which shows the concern that La Moncloa lives with the situation in Madrid.
Sánchez transfers to Ayuso the willingness of his Government to help that of Madrid, but also makes it clear that he respects his powers and, therefore, it is the regional Executive that must make the important decisions, including the possibility of requesting the alarm decree only for the Community, an offer that is still on the table, but that Ayuso has discarded for now.
“In view of the evolution that the pandemic is following in the Community that you preside, I consider it essential to strengthen the co-governance mechanisms to complement the efforts and means that your government is already deploying.
I would like to have the opportunity to jointly study how to reinforce these efforts and means that the Government of the nation can contribute in order to overcome as soon as possible the critical moments that the region is going through for the benefit of its citizens, "says Sánchez in the letter. So that we could address
these issues
in situ,
I will be delighted to visit the offices of the regional presidency of the Community of Madrid. ”To that letter, Ayuso replied, assuring that he has asked his teams to organize the meeting.
In recent days there has been a growing concern and tacit political tension between the Madrid Government and the central government to see who would assume the situation.
Constant messages have been launched from Madrid to ask the central executive to help them.
"Do something," Ayuso said.
From La Moncloa they answered, as Carmen Calvo, the vice president, did this morning on TVE, that they are willing to help in everything Madrid needs, and that they are already doing it with all the communities, but it is Puerta del Sol [headquarters of the regional government] the one that must assume the main management of the crisis, because they are their powers, and if they want to go to the next stage - this is the declaration of the state of alarm - they have to ask for it.
It is not just a competitive battle.
It is a fundamental political question.
During the weeks that the state of alarm lasted throughout Spain, Ayuso was the most belligerent president against him, the one who accused the Government of oppressing the freedom of the people of Madrid, and the one who demanded that they let him out of the alarm as soon as possible to recover Madrid's economy.
Now the Executive believes that if Ayuso wants to completely turn this policy around and ask La Moncloa or Health to regain control, it has to be she who demands it and who goes to Congress to defend this request for a state of alarm.
Sources from the Madrid government completely rule out this option of asking for the alarm and believe that the central executive has to make all possible help for Madrid available, without indirectly pressuring Ayuso to go to Congress to request it.
In any case, Sánchez's decision to go to Puerta del Sol has been well received by the Ayuso government.
She herself immediately celebrated it on Twitter: "The Community of Madrid has been alone for too long, I am glad that the Prime Minister finally agrees to meet with me," she wrote after recalling that she insistently demanded this appointment.