Sánchez and Ayuso agree on a coordination group for Madrid given the certainty that "very tough weeks are coming"

The harshness of the second wave of the covid throughout Spain but especially in Madrid, where the situation continues to worsen, has forced a political turn unthinkable just a week ago.

Pedro Sánchez and Isabel Díaz Ayuso have sealed a ceasefire on Monday in the political confrontation of recent months with an agreement to improve coordination against the coronavirus.

During a meeting at the Real Casa de Correos de Madrid, headquarters of the regional government, both presidents have agreed to create a permanent working group, which will meet every week, although only to make recommendations, with the heads of Health of both Executives - the minister Salvador Illa and the counselor Enrique Ruíz Escudero― as well as the minister of Public Administrations, Carolina Darias, and the vice president of Madrid, Ignacio Aguado.

This afternoon will be the first meeting of this special group and decisions will be made on the means that the Government will give to Madrid to face the pandemic in which it is already the worst region in Europe in number of infections.

Sánchez did not hide the seriousness of the situation and admitted that tougher measures may have to be taken.

Díaz Ayuso also opened that door, although for now he wants to wait to see how the selective confinements that have entered into force today work.

However, despite the obvious change in climate, the tone of both politicians has been very different.

While Sánchez has avoided criticism, Díaz Ayuso insisted on his reproaches and on holding the Government responsible for the situation, something that felt very bad in the PSOE.

• Photogallery: Pictures of the meeting

The two presidents have agreed on the need to strengthen Madrid's primary care (with its overwhelmed doctors), the police presence (to implement restrictions on mobility in 37 areas of the region), its teams of trackers (in charge of breaking the chains of contagions), or its ability to disinfect streets and crowded areas.

Sánchez pointed out that "Madrid needs a special plan" given its situation and its characteristics, especially at the moment the crisis is going through.

"Very tough weeks are coming," he warned while insisting that he has no intention of "protecting" or "replacing" the Madrid Government, which will keep its powers intact and will take the bulk of the decisions.

Sánchez has posed a very dark situation, in which tougher measures may have to be taken.

In fact, those that Madrid has proposed so far are considered very lukewarm in La Moncloa.

"This is not a game.

We are facing a second wave that is less lethal and slower than the previous one but continues to be very dangerous, "said the president. Ayuso has admitted that the situation is delicate:" There are no good times coming for anyone, it will not be easy " The president has pointed out that there is a lack of doctors in Madrid and that more will be missing in the future, without wanting to give details about the job insecurity of the Madrid health system, which is a key factor for this gap in professionals.

"It has been a fruitful, constructive and positive meeting," said Sánchez after the meeting.

The president has opened the way of a state of alarm only for the Community, a matter that has been on the table for weeks but has not advanced due to the resistance of the president.

“We are ready to contemplate other scenarios if necessary.

It is planned, "he continued, in a veiled reference that Madrid could soon expand restrictions on mobility, or even request the declaration of that state of alarm if the pandemic runs out of control." It is the regional presidents who by virtue of their powers they want to choose the alama state route or not.

We will implement all the measures that are necessary to stop the curve.

There are many other instruments, not everything has to go through the state of alama ”, insisted the Prime Minister.

“Together we will achieve it.

This is an epidemiological battle, not an ideological one ”.

Ayuso has insisted that she does not want to go to the state of alarm.

“I have no ego.

I will do anything.

But I do not think that neither the state of alarm nor the confinements are the solution now.

That is death for our community.

We cannot close all of Madrid without giving ourselves a chance.

We are going to try with this plan, if it works it will be taken to more areas ”, he said.

Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of the Community of Madrid, and Pedro Sánchez, president of the Government, during the press conference this Monday.

In video, Ayuso lists the problems that make Madrid are experiencing the bad situation with the coronavirus.

PHOTO: EFE / VIDEO: EPV

"The epidemic has regained strength in a very worrying way," recognized Díaz Ayuso.

"Only with joint actions will we be able to move forward with this situation," he argued.

"We need doctors, and there are no doctors in Spain," he acknowledged.

"In the middle of the course we cannot run out of teachers or health workers, we will have to reinforce it," he added, referring to the fact that the funds that have financed the new hires are necessary for implementation in 2020, so there is no may extend to 2021. "I beg the Government of Spain to test who enters our country with a field hospital at [the] Barajas airport," he stressed, after asking for an organic law to standardize the management of pandemics throughout the country .

The president justifies the data from Madrid - the worst in Europe - by the characteristics of the Community, in the center of the country and closely connected with all the others.

“We are a Spain in Spain.

Everyone passes through Madrid.

Madrid belongs to everyone.

We cannot treat Madrid like the rest.

It is their way of being, their freedom, their wide hours, "she insisted. Ayuso also wanted to remember that the rest of Spain is also bad. 9 of the 10 worst regions in Europe are in Spain, she pointed out. However,. Madrid has a third of the infected in the country with 14% of the population.

The meeting had a clear political background: change the climate to start participating jointly in decision-making from now on.

However, during the press conference, while Sánchez avoided any criticism of Madrid's management, the president has recovered, although in a softer tone, all her reproaches and her attempt to divert all responsibility for the situation to La Moncloa.

To the point that when asked what Madrid has done wrong to be the epicenter of the coronavirus in Europe, he has recovered the criticism from March: "I wish the measures had been taken earlier."

With the working group, both Executives move to a kind of co-government of the crisis.

This group will have two other support groups, which will include the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, several councilors of the Community, a representative of the Military Emergency Unit - which proves that the Army will be involved in the solution of the crisis―, another from the National Police, another from the Civil Guard and others from SAMUR and SUMMA-112.

The co-management of the crisis is thus made effective through joint working groups, although, for the moment, there are no further impact measures.

It will be this afternoon when the figures for this special plan for Madrid are finalized.

The new climate that both presidents have agreed to, and that their teams had already prepared during the weekend, has been sealed with a joint press conference in Puerta del Sol with a set worthy of a bilateral summit, with 14 flags of Spain and many others from Madrid.

This type of gestures of joint appearances is something that has happened in other countries, and even in Spanish administrations such as the Madrid City Council, but that had not yet happened between the Prime Minister and a regional president.

The decision, agreed by the heads of Cabinet, Iván Redondo and Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, implies a 180 degree turn in the atmosphere of tension experienced in recent weeks.

Although the embers of that fire have been clearly seen in various answers by Díaz Ayuso.

By lowering the tone and making that call for unity, Sánchez also implicitly assumes the measures of the Madrid president, which are being highly criticized by the PSOE and by United Podemos for considering them discriminatory for the most disadvantaged neighborhoods of the capital.

The health situation has forced this change.

The meeting between Díaz Ayuso and Pedro Sánchez was held on the day the restrictions announced last Friday by the president of the Community,

, Ignacio Aguado, and the Minister of Health, Enrique Ruiz Escudero, come into force.

The measures, which will affect 13% of the Madrid population (about 877,000 people) for at least 14 days, have led to several concentrations throughout the weekend against selective confinements in 37 areas of the capital.

While the regional Executive vindicates these measures to “bend the curve”, the residents of the affected neighborhoods denounce that the new restrictions are “ineffective and discriminatory” because they prey on the south and with the poorest areas of the city.

Insults to the president and the press at Puerta del Sol

A hundred people, with Spanish flags, gathered at Puerta del Sol at noon while Presidents Sánchez and Ayuso were meeting inside.

The first one was received upon arrival with boos, insults and shouts of "Government resignation."

“Criminal government” or “Government in prison”.

To the second they have dedicated words of support such as "Ayuso, resist", without clarifying who or what should resist.

At the same time, the Vox spokesman, Jorge Buxadé, congratulated himself on the "absolute success" of the concentration that, he said, had been called "by anonymous people" and in which Vox claimed to have nothing to do with it.

During the weekend, this message had circulated on the ultra party's social networks: “This Monday at 12 noon Pedro Sánchez will attend the Real Casa de Correos de Madrid (Puerta del Sol).

We will receive you to make it clear that we Spaniards want your resignation due to your criminal and negligent management.

It is very important that we are more than 100 people so that the media echoes. ”Several media outlets, which covered the arrival of the head of the Government at the headquarters of the Madrid Presidency, made direct echo of the insults that they received: "Corrupt press" and "sold journalists", in other epithets.

A cameraman, wearing a t-shirt of the Navarrese rock group Berri Txarrak (Bad news, in Basque), had to be protected by the police from the harassment of several madmen who tried to shake him. The national leaders of Vox were not in the concentration, but yes the general secretary of Solidaridad, the new union sponsored by the ultra party, Rodrigo Alonso.

For the first protest called by the union, there were very few workers among the protesters, which is logical given the time and day.

And no union demands, but more verbal violence than usual in the acts officially called by Vox.

/ MIGUEL GONZÁLEZ