The Madrid Minister of the Presidency, Justice and the Interior, Enrique López, intervenes during the plenary session of the Madrid Assembly, this Thursday. Javier Lizón (EFE)
The red leather chair in which Isabel Diaz Ayuso sits in the Madrid Assembly is empty, but the controversy over the regional government contract that her brother benefited from flies over the plenary as if it were a spell with which the opposition tries summon your presence.
This Thursday, the regional president is in Marseille (France) for a European summit.
Thus, she adds three weeks without giving explanations in the Chamber.
A circumstance that the deputies of the left opposition make ugly again and again, while the advisers of the Executive, orphans of the leader, stir in her seats.
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Ayuso haggles over the first opportunity for the opposition to ask him about the Ayusos' contracts
"It is absolutely unfortunate that in the first plenary session held after learning of the scandal, Díaz Ayuso is not going to show his face," says Alejandra Jacinto, deputy spokesperson for United We Can, before entering the Chamber.
"As much as he hides, he will not be able to hide the alleged commissions that his brother would have taken, which are the tip of the iceberg," she adds.
"We are going to continue studying all the legal channels and the president has the obligation to give immediate and sufficient explanations because she has broken the trust of the people of Madrid."
"He wants us to believe that the president of the Community of Madrid did not realize that his brother was taking 283,000 euros from the Community of Madrid," launches Pablo Gómez Perpinyà, from Más Madrid, in reference to the total of what he received Tomás Díaz Ayuso for four agreements with the Priviet company, despite the fact that only one of them was to provide masks to the regional government, according to its version.
"Do you think that the people of Madrid are idiots?", asks the Minister of Economy, Finance and Employment, Javier Fernández Lasquetty.
"You have prevented the appearance of Díaz Ayuso's brother, and an investigation commission, and have even expelled a deputy from the Chamber for mentioning him," adds Perpinyà in memory of what happened with Carmen López, representative of the PSOE, who had to leave the hemicycle in November for mentioning the relative of the president ―“she is dedicated to going to the hospitals to suggest to the hiring units which company to hire,” she said―.
"The president has preferred to go back to the ostrich strategy," continues Mónica García, the spokeswoman for the party that leads the opposition.
"You, Mr. Lasquetty, what did you think as different versions of the contract appeared?" Complains Juan Lobato, from the PSOE.
“First, there is nothing.
Second, there is nothing at all.
Third, well, yes, 55,000 euros plus VAT.
And the fourth, taking advantage of the war [in Ukraine], that the 283,000 euros that Casado said were true.
In the absence of the president, the revolutions in the regional Parliament, already accustomed to hyperboles, North Korean cheers and shouts, do not drop.
Díaz Ayuso's advisers stir.
uncomfortable.
angry.
As spurred to defend the leader, they respond to the opposition with the same virulence that they receive.
"In politics you can do anything, except the ridiculous," Enrique Ruiz-Escudero, the Minister of Health, comes to reproach.
The spirits are so heated that the PP and Vox benches start to applaud the popular Daniel Portero, son of the prosecutor Luis Portero, assassinated by ETA in 2000 who, while criticizing communism ―“Stalin's communism generated more than 100 million dead.
The communists of ETA murdered my father, too”- sneaks in a statement to applause that leaves the rest of the deputies stunned ―”the communists of the Chinese regime created the coronavirus”―.
But the moment passes almost unnoticed: this Thursday, in the Assembly, the deputies care more about who is missing than who is in the hemicycle.
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