178 candidates in the court of the 'queen' Ayuso

Power is also built with images.

For long minutes this Thursday, 178 municipal candidates of the PP of Madrid queue up at the Las Ventas bullring.

On the other side of that row, planted in the center of the ring like a hierarchical bullfighter, Isabel Díaz Ayuso awaits.

Everyone wants a campaign photo of her.

Cross a few words with the fashionable politician on the right, get closer to the sun that dazzles them.

It is a full blown kisser.

Ayuso is the queen of the PP of Madrid, "the boss", as the charges are heard to call her while urging the candidates to hurry, the line is so long.

Apart, in the background, almost alone, the mayor of the capital, José Luis Martínez Almeida, watches the scene.

And, when everything ends, when the candidate from the smallest town in Madrid has already had his moment with Ayuso, he takes the step.

"José Luis Martínez Almeida has served as an inspiration to many mayors and candidates and has laid the foundations for four promising years, which will be the best in Madrid," Ayuso says later, pointing to the mayor because he knows that he is not living his best moment, defeated together with Pablo Casado, in the internal battle of the PP, won by Ayuso.

"If in the worst moments you have worked as you have, what is not going to come now, mayor", he congratulates him despite the fact that the PP boils with murmurs about the little decision-making capacity that the councilor has had in drawing up the list electoral that will lead.

"Together we have faced unprecedented situations."

's snow

, but he could well be referring to the civil war that bled the PP to death at the beginning of last year.

Since then, Ayuso has concentrated all the power (political and institutional) of the party in the region.

The new national leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, lets him do and undo.

And that translates into the construction of a sort of taifa kingdom within the PP, that of Ayuso in Madrid, which tries to replicate step by step the trajectory of Esperanza Aguirre.

"The act demonstrates the illusion of the PP of Madrid with our president at the head," reacts Almeida who, just in case, leaves no doubt about who leads the conservative formation in the region.

"Thanks to your support and your love, we have managed the very difficult situation we have experienced," he adds.

“I appreciate your words, the best is yet to come.

The electoral ticket Ayuso-Almeida, Almeida-Ayuso, is unbeatable”.

But Ayuso's responsibility now far exceeds the capital.

The PP lived a very tough 2019 in electoral terms and the last municipal elections left the PSOE in power in the most populated cities in the region, with the exception of the capital.

Thus, the conservatives barely have 82 mayoralties in Madrid, to which they add their participation in four other governments in which they do not hold the baton of command.

A figure that Ayuso has put on the target.

"We have a lot of work ahead of us and few reasons for conformism," warned the conservative leader after seeing how the 178 mayoral candidates broke their hands slapping each other to keep up with the party's new campaign anthem (Ganas

.

One more example that in Madrid all conservative positions operate to the sound of the same music: that of Ayuso.

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