Almeida's first measure in Madrid after the elections and the five keys that explain his absolute majority

From the worst result in the history of the PP in 2019, to the absolute majority in 2023. From being in limbo a year and three months ago, with an internal civil war in the party, with the attempt to espionage the president of the Community, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, from her City Council through high municipal positions, and with the management of the ball of the masks (when two commission agents sold sanitary material to the Consistory in March 2020 for a value of 15.8 million euros charging for it a commission of almost six million), to reap the biggest victory of a Madrid mayor of the PP to date: the 21 districts. "They told me a year ago and I don't believe it," a senior Madrid City Council official says by phone. José Luis Martínez-Almeida has swept the polling stations of the capital of Spain with 29 councilors and more than 729,302 votes.

The absolute majority in the palace of Cibeles is in 29 councilors. The mayor of Madrid has revalidated his mandate with a coup de effect: he will govern alone, without ties, returning the PP to the figures of 2011, with the overwhelming majorities of Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón. Almeida, already re-elected, went out to the emblematic balcony of the national headquarters of Genoa by the hand of Isabel Díaz Ayuso on Sunday, to the rhythm of Fix You, by ColdPlay. "Good evening, Madrid. How are the machines? We won the elections. We have swept the Community and the City Council." On Monday, however, he was silent. Unlike the president of Madrid, he did not grant any political interviews. Beyond the figures, the keys. Why has Almeida swept all 21 districts, including Puente de Vallecas? What is the first thing you will do when you take office?

Almeida's first measure: urban planning regulations. The vote for Almeida to be re-elected will be on June 17. Immediately, the popular will take to the plenary session of the City Council – at the end of June or early July, according to municipal sources – the new urban planning regulations of the capital, which are stored in a drawer after the refusal of Vox to approve them a few weeks ago. During these last months, Ciudadanos, which governed in coalition with Almeida and directed the Urban Development area, has elaborated in different municipal commissions this urban norm for Madrid. The text, among other issues, neutralizes ghost kitchens in the capital – the two-year moratorium without new licenses ended in August – and will also allow the study of a new General Urban Development Plan.

Ayuso's drag. This is the first key to Almeida's victory. Isabel Díaz Ayuso has dragged the popular voter to past eras, remembering the overwhelming majorities of Esperanza Aguirre and Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón. The Ayuso effect – with a more comfortable absolute majority, achieving 71 deputies, three more than necessary in the Assembly – has also translated into votes for Almeida. The Ayuso-Almeida electoral ticket has worked perfectly in its first revalidation. The president, yes, has achieved 48,023 votes more than the mayor in the city of Madrid: 777,325 ballots and 47.77% of the vote, compared to 729,302 votes and 44.50%. The district with the most votes, once again, has been that of Salamanca, where the popular have reached 60.53%. That result is like a trip back in time, because it takes the PP back to 2011, the last time it governed with an absolute majority between the two institutions.

The total disappearance of Ciudadanos. Begoña Villacís has not managed to overcome the 5% threshold. He has only garnered 47,510 votes and 2.83% of the ballots. Four years ago, the formation and the same candidate achieved unprecedented success in Madrid, reaching 311,617 votes, 19.13% of the vote and 11 councilors, only 60,000 votes away from surpassing, even, the PP. Now, everything has disappeared. Clearing the map. "There is no room for us anymore," says a voice with a lot of weight within the party in Madrid. "These are bad times for the center. It has been voted against Pedro Sánchez, nothing more." The flow of Citizens has gone directly to the popular, who have gone from harvesting 394,708 votes four years ago, with 24.23% of the votes and 15 councilors, to add in 2023 all the vote of Citizens and drag, in addition, 22,977 new voters. Here, explain sources from Almeida's team, it was essential to play a key card during the week of the electoral campaign. "Internal polls told us that Villacís was below 3%," explain PP sources in Madrid. "We needed to reinforce a possible pact of Citizens with the left to reinforce the useful vote, and that is why Almeida launched those messages of concentration of the vote."

Podemos stays at the gates. The party of Pablo Iglesias has been presented for the first time in Madrid and has been only a handful of votes away from entering the City Council and turning the municipal arch. Its candidate, Roberto Sotomayor, has reached 79,874 votes, 4.87% of the total. Three tenths of harvest the three councilors. Or put another way: less than 1,000 votes. If Sotomayor had agreed, Almeida's absolute majority would not be such, since it would have dropped from 29 councilors to 27.

A campaign that did not take an absolute majority for granted. Unlike the polls in the region with Isabel Díaz Ayuso, no poll published to date guaranteed Almeida's absolute majority. The mayor's campaign team, according to a close collaborator, tried to generate a climate that nothing was done among his voters, but, yes, counting daily with internal surveys that ensured that majority in his pocket. "We take advantage of these surveys to always bet on the useful vote of the PP against Citizens. That is why Almeida always stressed the useful vote in the last week."

The campaign in a national key overlaps the management of the city and neighborhoods. Although Más Madrid and PSOE have tried to make a campaign focused on the management of neighborhoods and the city, with numerous fires still unclosed, the 14 days before the elections have been marked by national issues. "This has been our drama," says a councilor of Más Madrid in the City Council of Cibeles. "The key for us was to hypermobilize the right-wing voter," says a senior PP official in the capital, "and we understood that with the campaign that was being done. First it was the lists of Bildu and then an overexposure of Sánchez." The result: Almeida has won in all districts, including Puente de Vallecas.

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