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Isabel Díaz Ayuso: Conservatives' new strong woman?
Photo:
HANDOUT / AFP
Even before the election campaign in Madrid had officially started, you could already get an impression of how dirty the struggle for power in the region would be.
On Monday morning just after half past nine, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the Conservative incumbent regional president of Madrid, gave a television interview.
A few days earlier, Ayuso had called new elections in Madrid, now she was sitting in the TV studio, grinning slightly and in a good mood, as is so often the case.
Ayuso said, "If they call you a fascist, you're on the right side of the story."
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Pablo Iglesias: Conservatives' favorite enemy
Photo: Chema Moya / EPA
Less than three hours later, Pablo Iglesias, the left-wing alternative vice president of Spain, uploaded a video on his Twitter profile.
Iglesias said he would resign as Vice President of Spain in order to run against Ayuso in the regional election in Madrid.
He is handing over the leadership of his Unidas Podemos party to Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz.
In Madrid, said Iglesias, everything will be going on on May 4th.
About children's education, the health system.
About democracy.
Iglesias says he will compete as a Madrilene.
But also as an anti-fascist.
Finally, he pats his heart twice with his right fist.
Left-wing populist against right-wing populist
Iglesias and Ayuso only have a lot in common at first glance, in reality they are like fire and ice.
Both are 42 years old, both were born on October 17th in Madrid, both speak in punch lines that fit into tweets.
Almost ten years ago they appeared together on Iglesias' TV show "La Tuerka".
Ayuso and Iglesias already had the same roles then as they do today.
They argued about politics in front of the camera, and afterwards they drank a beer together and exchanged teasing messages on Twitter.
Both of them are still the best in front of the camera today, and they mercilessly attack their opponents in debates.
Iglesias versus Ayuso, in left-wing populist versus right-wing populist, the duel electrifies Spain.
Iglesias accuses Ayuso of "Trumpism", Ayuso moves Iglesias close to the Eta terrorists.
The polemical election campaign, so much can already be said, will divide the already polarized country even further and make fighting the pandemic more difficult.
As in Germany, the regional governments have to agree on a common line with the central government.
Ayuso has been staging herself for weeks as a freedom fighter who forbids her citizens as little as possible.
To prevent a fourth wave, strict travel restrictions are to apply in Spain around Easter.
All regions agreed on it, only Ayuso did not want to participate.
In the battle for the capital, everything seems allowed.
Ayuso: "Communism or Freedom"
Isabel Díaz Ayuso, born in the chic Chamberí district of Madrid, is a trained journalist.
She once tweeted during the election campaign on behalf of Pecas, the dog of the then top conservative candidate.
Ayuso has since made a name for herself as a hardliner.
In the upcoming election, she relies on the support of the right-wing extremists from Vox.
They should not join their government if possible, but they are their only hope for a parliamentary majority.
Ayuso continues to lead her party to the extreme.
In Madrid it should be successful, in the rest of the country the shift to the right could be a problem for the conservatives.
Ayuso's campaign slogan is still parroted by all party friends: "Communism or freedom," it reads.
Ayuso stands for freedom and puts even the liberals under suspicion of communism.
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Iglesias: fight against the corrupt »politician caste«
Pablo Iglesias is called "El Coletas", the man with the braid.
In 2001 Iglesias went to the G8 summit in Genoa as a young man.
With a purple shirt, piercing over his eye and black sunglasses on his head, he railed against the police operation.
The political scientist with a doctorate later disseminated his left-wing theses on his own TV show and mobilized against a corrupt »political caste«.
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Pablo Iglesias in the 2019 election campaign: »El Coletas«
Photo: JP GANDUL / EPA-EFE / REX
After the financial crisis, he and his companions founded the Podemos protest party in Madrid.
Iglesias inspired the indignant Spanish youth, from then on it was no longer just socialists and conservatives who shared power among themselves.
As the vice president of a left-wing coalition, Iglesias restrained himself for a long time, but then it broke out of him.
Spain was not a full-fledged democracy, he announced in the spring, and later warned against the power of the media.
The conservative establishment was shocked.
The duel between the two populists is the consequence of a political earthquake that began in Murcia, a small region in the east of the country.
So far, liberals and conservatives have ruled there, but last week the liberals had had enough.
They used a scandal involving politicians who had been vaccinated irregularly as an opportunity to overthrow the conservatives in a vote of no confidence - together with the socialists.
The attempt failed, but Ayuso evidently feared that the liberals with whom she ruled in Madrid might do something similar.
On the same day she called new elections.
Iglesias is putting his career on the line
Suddenly a lot is at stake for Ayuso and Iglesias.
If Ayuso wins, and that seems quite possible at the moment, she will be the new strong woman among the Conservatives.
If she loses, she will be burned by her closeness to the right-wing extremists.
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Isabel Díaz Ayuso in a restaurant in Madrid in mid-March 2021: "Communism or Freedom"
Photo: Jose Velasco / dpa
Iglesias, on the other hand, starts from an awkward position: The left in Madrid is divided, in recent years it has mainly fought itself.
Iglesias was involved in this.
His former companion Iñigo Errejon founded his own party, Más Madrid, after a dispute with him, which is now excluding a joint list with Iglesias.
According to surveys, in the worst case scenario, Unidas Podemos could even fail to pass the five percent hurdle.
Iglesias wants to prevent this with all its might.
If he fails, Iglesias would not only have lost Madrid to the woman he believes to be a pioneer of fascism, but would also have destroyed his career within a few weeks.
For a vice president and party leader, that would be a pretty steep descent.
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