The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, will have to pay a fine of 960 euros for ignoring the electoral law in the pre-campaign of 2021 and "prevailing from office" to sell achievements and promises in three institutional acts in which she was required neutrality, precisely because she is the president.
The Supreme Court considers that she made statements "violating neutrality" on at least three occasions, despite the fact that there was a "prior warning, without success" so that she "abstain from disseminating messages of electoral content in institutional acts."
Ayuso has been annoyed that they gave him a higher fine than Pedro Sánchez, which gives rise to the judges to tell the regional leader of the PP that the infractions he perpetrated were more and more serious than those of Sánchez, and that the committed despite being warned.
The Supreme Court has confirmed in two sentences the fines imposed by the Central Electoral Board (JEC) for violation of neutrality in the days prior to the elections of May 4, 2021, which ended up granting Ayuso his current majority in the Assembly of Madrid.
Also the order of costs in both sentences in an amount that cannot exceed 4,000 euros for each of the Supreme Court rulings.
The fine comes only a few days after the Madrid Court has condemned the Municipal Group of the PP in Madrid for acting recklessly and in bad faith by having denounced two councilors of the City Council of the capital, then governed by Manuela Carmena (now Madrid). .
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The Fourth Section of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court dismisses Díaz Ayuso's appeals against the JEC resolutions and confirms that in three public acts held in April 2021, when he had already called the May elections, he violated the requirement of neutrality that the public powers must respect during the electoral period.
Ayuso "highlighted achievements and achievements of his Government" on at least three occasions in just one week: in an act held on April 8 in Las Ventas, during the presentation of a mural tribute to the bullfighter Víctor Barrio;
on April 12, at the presentation of an Iberia plane;
and on April 16, during a visit to some connection works in the new neighborhood of Valdebebas, with the T-4 terminal of Madrid's Barajas airport.
More Madrid and the PSOE denounced the violation that Ayuso perpetrated.
The sentences make it clear that in the first act, among other mentions, Ayuso referred to the aid granted to ranchers of the fighting bull;
in the second, to the investment of more than 1,000 million in public-private collaboration projects with companies such as Iberia or Airbus;
and in the third, to various urban initiatives carried out by his Government, such as the construction of 6,000 homes in a youth housing plan or the Madrid Nudo Norte development.
The judges are clear that this is a violation of article 50.2 of the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (LOREG), which must entail a fine of 360 euros for the act of sales, and 600 for the conjunction of the other two.
That is why they reject the appeals of the president, who first attacked the JEC for an alleged desire to sanction her, then challenged the amounts, and even complained that they fined her more than Sánchez for the same type of infraction.
But the room considers that the amounts of the fine are "proportionate", and more taking into account "that there was a previous warning, without success".
The electoral boards gave him three touches.
In its note on the sentence, the Supreme Court writes: "Díaz Ayuso compared his penalty of 600 euros, which he considered non-proportional, with the penalty of 500 euros from the JEC that the Supreme Court confirmed by ruling of May 2021 to the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, also for violation of the principle of political neutrality.
Which gives rise to the magistrates to underline: "The Chamber reminds you that in your case, with the 600 euros, not one, but two infractions are sanctioned, in addition to the existence of previous warnings, while with the President of the Government a fact was sanctioned and without prior warning.
In any case, the Chamber adds that, to establish comparisons, the Supreme Court also confirmed a fine of 2,200 euros for the former Government spokeswoman Isabel Celaá, or sanctions of 3,000 and 2,500 euros for the former president of the Generalitat of Catalonia Joaquim Torra ”.