Where I said I say, I say Diego: the contradictions of the PP and Citizens

From the left, Isabel Díaz-Ayuso (PP), Inés Arrimadas (Cs), Pablo Casado (PP) and Ignacio Aguado (Cs).

The earthquake of the motion of censure in Murcia has had aftershocks in the rest of the coalition governments between the PP and Citizens.

The contradictory statements of the leaders of both parties highlight the arm-party dispute in the center-right for the survival or recovery of the lost electoral space.

These are some of them.

The contradictions of Isabel Díaz Ayuso

The nuclear button.

Isabel Díaz Ayuso's relationship with Ciudadanos, and especially with Ignacio Aguado, vice president of the Community, has been difficult from the beginning.

The Madrid PP has complained bitterly in recent months about having the opposition "inside the house" and has always feared that its partner would change sides and promote a motion of censure.

To avoid this scenario, the president had in her hand the threat of pressing the nuclear button of the electoral advance, with very favorable polls for her and very unfavorable for the party of Inés Arrimadas.

However, the Madrid president has publicly ruled out on numerous occasions that she was going to advance the elections and that she even considered that possibility.

"If I had called an election, they would call me foolish and dangerous," he declared in

The World

only a month ago.

The fear, however, has always been there.

In fact, the general secretary of the PSOE in Madrid, José Manuel Franco, ventured last December that there could be early elections in 2021.

The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, in her appearance to the media this Wednesday.

EPV

Freedom and offices.

“I want the will of the people of Madrid to guide their destiny.

I assume everything that is to come and I will always do it thinking of the benefit of Spain and Madrid before my own.

I want the people of Madrid to be the ones to choose between socialism or freedom ”, he declared when announcing the electoral advance.

In the last few hours he has repeated that he does not want to leave the fate of the people of Madrid in the hands of decisions that are made "in the offices".

But the Madrid president did not win the 2019 elections [now the polls do give her victory].

It was that of the socialist candidate, Ángel Gabilondo, the most voted list, and the pact that legitimately raised Díaz Ayuso to power was forged in other offices and in conversations with Citizens.

The dilemma "socialism or freedom" is obviously not true either.

Socialists rule, alone or in coalition, in nine communities and their citizens enjoy the same freedoms as in Madrid.

It cannot be that the same Government that called elections in Catalonia with worse data, now closes Spain thus being much better.

https://t.co/BnkK7SgSU1

- Isabel Díaz Ayuso (@IdiazAyuso) March 4, 2021

Catalonia and the elections in a pandemic.

"It cannot be that the same government that called elections in Catalonia with worse data, now closes Spain like this, being much better," Ayuso declared a few days ago.

The Community of Madrid now has the worst coronavirus incidence data in the entire country, but its president has decided to advance the regional elections.

"I regret that some media have told my supposed intention to call elections to coincide with the Catalan ones," he had declared in September.

"My only concern is going back to school, reinforcing Madrid's health care and projects to reactivate the community that I preside over," he added.

The contradictions of Inés Arrimadas

Motions and morale.

Díaz Ayuso's team has had polls for months that favor the PP and harm Cs, which invited the electoral advancement.

But Pablo Casado and Inés Arrimadas sealed a non-aggression pact (neither motion nor advance) that allowed Genoa to curb the will of the Madrid president to give in to that temptation to get rid of a partner with whom she has never gotten along.

"Whoever presents a motion of censure in the middle of the second wave is irresponsible and has a moral problem," said the leader of Cs last October in La Sexta.

His party, however, presented a motion in Murcia on Wednesday that gave Díaz Ayuso the excuse to advance the elections in Madrid.

. @ InesArrimadas: "Whoever presents a motion of censure in the middle of the second wave is irresponsible and has a moral problem." # ObjetiveCrispación pic.twitter.com/riSCWwji9v

- The Goal (@ObjetivoLaSexta) October 18, 2020

Regeneration

.

Ciudadanos, which has incurred in numerous contradictions and lurching in its strategy since its birth, took heart from the pact with the PP in Andalusia to evict the PSOE from power as an example of change and "regeneration" after years of corruption, alluding to the case of I will be.

But he did not apply that same philosophy in Madrid, where the popular have governed for 25 years and where several of its presidents, vice presidents and councilors have had problems with the justice system due to corruption cases.

Ignacio González was imprisoned, like Francisco Granados, and Esperanza Aguirre is charged with the

Púnica case.

The contradictions of Pablo Casado

Fights and distractions.

One of the recurring tools of the PP leader to wear down the PSOE and Podemos coalition government has been to exploit their disagreements by suggesting that these internal fights distract the Executive.

"Spain is going to ruin while its government fights," he has repeated many times.

But the disputes have been constant also in the Community of Madrid until the total break this Wednesday.

The leader of the PP, Pablo Casado, this Tuesday in Congress.

EPV

The union of the center-right.

Casado insists practically since his arrival to the presidency of the party in his intention to regroup the "center-right" to evict Pedro Sánchez from power and took his eagerness to ally with Cs to the sacrifice of one of its most veteran leaders, Alfonso Alonso, former leader of the popular Basques.

The national leadership of the PP has signed and continues to call members of the Arrimadas party to join its ranks.

But if the forecasts of the Madrid PP are fulfilled and the elections held in Madrid are held, it would be Díaz Ayuso who would achieve that recovery of the electoral space that Casado has promised for two years.

The fate of the party leader is linked to that of the Madrid president, whom he has had to defend internally on many occasions as he is a highly questioned appointment in the PP due to his lack of management experience.

The protagonism of Ayuso, a very personal bet of Casado, and of his chief of staff, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, has long been restless in Genoa and is increasing.

The Murcian government, which was aware the night before of the plan to present a motion of censure, did not try to advance the elections.

The one in Madrid, yes.

Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, who has openly criticized her boss since he left her as spokesperson in Congress, now presents Ayuso as "the alternative" and "the visible opposition."

“That is the way of regrouping that Spain so badly needs.

Don't be sterile, ”he wrote in

El Mundo

, the same medium through which he communicated, a few years ago, his break with Mariano Rajoy.

There is an alternative.

Today I write in @elmundoes about Ayuso and hope.https: //t.co/iIVA4QwS2G

- Cayetana Alvarez de Toledo (@cayetanaAT) March 11, 2021

The contradictions of Ignacio Aguado

In Murcia yes, but not in Madrid.

The dismissed vice president has been lavish in the media in the last hours to criticize Díaz Ayuso's decision to advance the elections, but all his statements fall when he changes the subject of Madrid for Murcia, where his party has presented the motion of censorship.

"He has caught us working and the PP scheming," he complained, for example, ignoring that the leaders of Cs in Murcia have spent weeks concocting the motion to evict the PP from the presidency.

Loyalty.

"I had to keep quiet a lot out of loyalty," Aguado has also repeated.

The truth is that the controversies within the coalition government have been constant and often public.

For example, when Díaz Ayuso refused to accept the forced closure by the Ministry of Health and resorted to justice.

“I bet on speaking out, not on the courts.

Today's mobility restrictions save lives tomorrow, ”the Madrid vice president said at the time.