The pipe of peace that everyone smoked in a circle in Madrid under
Sheriff
Almeida's
orders no longer smokes
.
As if it were a Sergio Leone movie, the municipal truce in Madrid jumped to all screens during prime time.
Breaking with the war scripts of the Congress of Deputies and the Regional Assembly, the councilors of the City Council of the capital, cowboys and Indians, had holstered their rifles and buried the hatchet.
But the film has run out of actors for the second part.
War drums sound and
they want to take the role of good from
the
sheriff
and leave him that of the ugly or the bad one.
Since he was appointed national spokesman for the Popular Party in August, the three Administrations pivot on a daily basis around José Luis Martínez-Almeida (Madrid, 45 years old): local, regional and central.
He leaves home every day with Cibeles, Sol and Génova in his backpack.
Too much weight, understands the opposition, which has adopted as a daily mantra the fact that Almeida has abandoned the residents of the capital on his trip.
“You have to be more of the mayor of Madrid and less of a spokesperson for the Popular Party,” Rita Maestre, the spokesperson for Más Madrid, snapped at the plenary session on Tuesday.
Almost traced the phrase of Pepu Hernández, socialist spokesman: “Every time it is less mayor of Madrid.
And he is more and more spokesperson ”.
So daily.
In the background, essentially, the permanent quarrel with President Pedro Sánchez, the usual guirigay of the restrictions of the regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and the Villa Agreements that the five municipal groups unanimously endorsed in July and that mark the path to face the health, social and economic crisis.
Those agreements, complicated to comply with, are a small miracle that is part of that anomaly that involves all parties, from Vox to Más Madrid, stamping their signature on the same document.
Those were better times for the municipal ententes.
The experts consulted do not doubt that we are facing a politician who rose to the crest of the wave with the pandemic nine months after taking, in June 2019, the baton of command of the capital and that, contrary to what the The mayor himself, the splitting of positions is a drag on local interests.
The decision to appoint him spokesman "may generate expectations of relief to the opposition in the Consistory because it could put the Almeida government in trouble," argues Lluis Orriols, a political scientist at the Carlos III University.
"His election as national spokesman breaks the consensus around the figure that a councilor must have as the mayor of all Madrid," says Román Echániz, also a political scientist.
"The chances of making this inclusive vocation effective are reduced by allowing the opposition to charge against his figure, not because of his role as mayor, but as a national spokesman for the PP."
"Obviously, as time goes by it is more difficult to maintain that consensus"
Those consensuses around covid-19 in Cibeles "were born at a time of great tension that required agreements from all forces before the first stake of the pandemic," says Sandra León, political scientist at the Carlos III University.
"Obviously, as time passes, it is more difficult to maintain that consensus, also because Almeida's figure has changed with bicephaly and the widely polarized national politics contaminates the municipal sphere."
Seemingly immune to criticism, Almeida continues to be a dialectical machine gun that grows strong on the throne of oratory.
Master the keys to argumentation and memorize data without the need for papers.
He feels secure clutching the lectern with both hands and stripped of his mask, which constantly fogges his glasses.
He also looks comfortable despite adverse circumstances on radio and television, where he is exposed much more than others.
He lives under the media spotlight with a dizzying agenda.
It is easy for a dozen cameras and a score of reporters to cover a simple visit to a covid-19 information tent, as happened on Wednesday.
His daily responses represent a review of the main issues of current affairs in Spain.
Without Ayuso's doubts, he launches himself to answer whatever is necessary.
The mayor assured Tuesday that 66% of the 352 measures of the Villa Pacts have already been implemented or are being processed.
The PSOE left it at 22.5%.
Maestre's audit went beyond the percentage and listed important gaps such as the family card, public transport or the digital and health divide.
In that same water and oil they formed an impossible cocktail when Vox supported the eight proposals raised by the opposition.
It was, although the spokesman Javier Ortega Smith denied it, a slap by Pablo Casado's performance in Vox's motion of censure in Congress, which angered Almeida, who, however, will almost certainly save with the extreme right the budgets of 2021.
Casado's hand
Three moments mark the recent political elevation of this state attorney.
First, the president of the PP, Pablo Casado, appoints him as a mayoral candidate, being a stranger to the street.
Second, he becomes the first mayor of the capital with the worst results achieved by his party.
And third, in the middle of last August Casado appointed him to be the party's national spokesperson.
That day, Almeida arrived in Genoa under the aura of the peacemaker and triumphant politician in the face of the pandemic.
That day the peace pipe that he shared in the City Hall with the opposition groups also began to go out.
Was it a poisoned gift?
Sandra León doesn't think so.
What's more, he understands that he can even be a lifeguard if the wind blows against him at City Hall.
"The figure of the mayor of Madrid is important within the national political panorama but not comparable with the territorial barons or the weight of the national spokesman."
This political scientist believes that Almeida gained notoriety with the management of the pandemic but this new position can be "an important lever", since "the balance in the City Council is complicated" because it does not have "a broad majority".
“For the PP it is not a bad decision to have as a visible face someone who has won political credit.
But for Almeida it is something else.
It could be a poisoned gift "
“For the PP it is not a bad decision to have as a visible face someone who has won political credit.
But for Almeida it is something else.
It can be a poisoned gift "because" being a spokesperson increases visibility but also increases the inconsistencies between the party's position and that of mayor, and these inconsistencies can weigh down the credit earned ", adds Lluis Orriols.
That credit, to a certain extent, is seen with the thermometer of his Twitter account.
The mayor also took off on the net.
In March it gained 43,663 followers, in April 55,048, in May 37,624 and in June 15,637.
This Saturday it has reached 230,000 and today it rises about 4,000 a month.
It may be little compared to the peak of April, but a lot with the 300 a month that joined his profile in 2018, when he was nothing more than an
opposition
hooligan
that no one saw with the mayor's cane or as a national spokesman for the PP.
From escrache in Lavapiés to balsam in Aravaca
There is a city beyond the carpet of Cibeles.
The mayor wants to decentralize institutional support in times of a pandemic storm.
That is why José Luis Martínez-Almeida, from the PP, is on a tour of neighborhoods of all colors.
"Our office has to be more than ever on the street," he defends.
Some criticize him, as in Lavapiés, the undisputed fiefdom of the opposition force Más Madrid.
Others acclaim him, as in Aravaca, an affluent neighborhood where the PP wins comfortably. Lavapiés, Thursday afternoon: The press was not summoned.
The police closely monitored Sub-Saharan and Maghrebian people in Arturo Barea Square.
"We walked around but they didn't show up," says Paco, a street vendor from the Rastro, who has been closed for 34 Sundays with him.
They finally found the delegation of about fifteen people, with Almeida and the councilor of the Centro district, José Fernández, who presented the improvement project for the Lavapiés area in positive terms.
“We want to work!” The vendors shouted.
Carmen Navas went with another group, the anti-evictions, who gave the rattle for an hour.
"It was our opportunity to do the escrache", details over the phone this woman scammed by a fake real estate.
He shouted while recording with his mobile.
Posters in hand pursued them shouting "Right to the roof!"
or "Rule for the people!"
Several bodyguards acted as goalkeepers and the protests did not go further.
Almeida left Lavapiés without leaving a record on his Twitter.Aravaca, Friday morning: The press was called here.
There were lights and stenographers and in the absence of protesters.
No neighbors banner in hand.
Unlike.
Leticia, a neighbor who was walking her dog, applauded him as soon as she saw him getting off the motorcycle.
Calm and quiet in the park where Almeida responded to journalists surrounded by curious walkers.
Aravaca was a silk compared to Lavapiés.
Councilor Loreto Sordo, who promotes a campaign to support local commerce, accompanied Almeida on his walk.
First stop, a men's fashion store with little nearby prices.
As soon as you step on the sidewalk again, without stopping at the tobacco shop, take a selfie with a fan's mobile.
A few meters further on, a lady interrupted her aperitif with a compliment: "The best we have."
In the Plaza de San Anacleto another woman with her hands clasped on her chest stood in front of him: "What an illusion!"
There is no doubt, Almeida was playing at home.
And after a while he realized it with a tweet.
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