The former president of the Community of Madrid, Joaquín Leguina, the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and the former mayor of Madrid, Juan Barranco.Alejandro Martínez Vélez (Europa Press)

The PP of Madrid, chaired by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has taken advantage of the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the region's autonomy statute to charge against Vox and the president of the government, Pedro Sánchez (PSOE).

In the absence of the extreme right from the event organized by the regional executive, consistent with its proposal to end the state of autonomy, the spokesmen for the conservative party have delved into the conflict that separates the two formations since they failed to approve the Budgets for 2023. With the regional and municipal elections on May 28 in less than 100 days, this vindication of Madrid's national political role has had the best example in the controversial management that Ayuso carried out during the pandemic and has been quite a declaration of intent:

"The autonomy that we celebrate today is the main brake on sanchismo in Madrid," said the general secretary of the regional PP, Alfonso Serrano, when asked about the absence of Vox.

"Without autonomy in recent years, what we would have in Madrid would be the policies of the Sánchez government," he continued.

"Therefore, autonomy is a brake on Sánchez's policies."

"The Community of Madrid has managed to demonstrate the enormous utility of the autonomous communities by being an enormous and strong counterweight against what is the central bureaucracy", has completed the spokesman for the PP in the regional Assembly, Pedro Muñoz Abrines.

A line of argument that Ayuso herself has followed in her institutional discourse, which has been preceded by the interventions of two former socialist politicians, the former mayor Juan Barranco and the former president Joaquín Leguina (who has praised the work of the PP governments).

In fact, the conservative leader has justified her constant involvement in controversies of national importance that are far from her powers with the first article of Madrid's autonomy statute: "Madrid, in expression of the national interest and its peculiar characteristics (...) is an Autonomous Community that organizes its self-government in accordance with the Spanish Constitution and with this Statute, which is its basic institutional norm”, it reads.

“It is important to remember that it has been the regional model and not centralism that has allowed Madrid to become the capital community of Spain”, recalled Díaz Ayuso.

"It is the regional powers that have allowed us to lower taxes, make major reforms, promote competition, reduce bureaucracy or guarantee educational freedom in the face of any tax model," he added.

"And it has been the regional powers that have allowed us to ensure the freedom of citizens, businesses and restaurants in the darkest moments of the pandemic."

It has not been a casual mention.

If something has confronted Sánchez and Ayuso, it has been the management of the coronavirus crisis, when the Madrid government chose to keep shops open, and design the confinements by basic health areas.

In any case, the clashes between the two administrations have also spread to economic, fiscal, educational and international policy.

As a consequence, the government of the Community of Madrid has registered twelve judicial appeals against the plant in just three years.

Opposition complaints

In contrast to this vision of Madrid as a political piece at the national level, the left-wing opposition has demanded a management focused on the problems of the region, its powers and day-to-day issues.

Thus, the spokeswoman for Más Madrid, Mónica García, has defended a "comprehensive reform" of the Statute to "shield public services, Madrid's health and expand the rights that have to do with the environment, equality and the protection of citizenship".

For his part, the PSOE spokesman, Juan Lobato, has urged people to decide in the next elections if they want an “open Madrid where anyone can have their opinion, their tastes and ideas, or a current one with the president, where it seems that there is plenty the one who does not think like her”.

And he insisted: "You have to choose between a Madrid with a government that listens to families, patients and students, or one with arrogance, arrogance and that treats them without the respect and sensitivity they deserve", he launched.

For the spokesperson for United We Can in the Assembly, Carolina Alonso, it is necessary to remember that the Statute of Autonomy recognizes housing as its own competence.

"During all these years the Community of Madrid has done absolutely nothing to guarantee the right and access to housing."

Thus, she has denounced that rents in the region "have grown by 13% in the last year" and that Madrid's youth "cannot emancipate themselves", and when they do "they have to go to a shared apartment".

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