MÁR: Ayuso's squire for everything

“We are waiting for you at the gayola door.”

In the worst of the pandemic, Alberto Reyero, then Minister of Social Policies of the Community of Madrid, found that phrase published in a newspaper article referring to him and his Cs colleagues in the coalition government formed with the PP.

The message has a mysterious origin: “Puerta del Sol” is cited as a source.

Reyero, the man who denounced the triage protocols that prevented the transfer of elderly people from nursing homes to hospitals during the peak of the health crisis, has no evidence or doubts about who is hiding behind that euphemism: Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, the chief of staff of the President Isabel Díaz Ayuso.

Four years later, that same “Sol” appears as the origin of a hoax that attempts to intimidate two journalists from EL PAÍS who are in the vicinity of the baroness' home while they investigate a ramification of the scandal due to the alleged tax fraud that she had committed. Alberto González Amador, the commission agent with whom politics coexists.

Neither then nor now is Rodríguez's institutional position in danger.

Díaz Ayuso assumes and supports her actions.

More information

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“He wants her to be the protagonist, for no advisor to overshadow her, and at the same time he is her protector, which is why now he has become a squire, on the front line of combat,” describes a source who knows the ins and outs of the Madrid Government. .

“It's a very good strategy: now no one talks about the apartment, about the alleged fraud... They talk about MÁR,” he continues, referring to the acronym by which the powerful former Secretary of State for Communication is known.

“Although she usually says that she doesn't know what MÁR does, or who she corresponds with, she is hard to believe,” she adds, referring to the messages sent to journalists by the president's chief of staff.

“It has always been said that there is a father-daughter relationship, that he commands her, as if she were a puppet, something very macho and sexist

:

it is not like that,” he emphasizes.

“He doesn't manage her.

In any case, she handles him: if she wants to say A, she says A.”

A second interlocutor, who has the confidence of the president, describes the relationship like this: “He is a highly trusted advisor.

An inseparable companion on this journey.

He believes in her.”

January 11, 2019. Rodríguez recommends Ayuso go home now.

There are only a few minutes left for the PP to announce its candidates in Madrid: “And if they haven't told you anything already, forget it,” he tells this unknown politician, with whom he established a relationship for a university job when he was Secretary of State for José María Aznar (1996) and with whom he strengthened ties in 2018, when they met on a train bound for a radio interview in Calamocha (Teruel).

However, for once MÁR's famous political nose fails.

Miguel Ángel Rodríguez and the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, in Barcelona on December 5, 2023. Alberto Paredes / Europa Press (Europa Press)

“Come to Genoa.

I want to talk to you”, is the summary of the call that Díaz Ayuso receives.

On the other side, the then president of the PP, Pablo Casado.

And he starts it all.

The meetings in a venue empty of people and hope.

The depressing polls.

The campaign is full of outrageous headlines that serve to publicize the candidate.

The first defeat of the PP in a Madrid regional election since 1987. And the arrival to power thanks to an alliance with Cs to the detriment of the winner of the elections, Ángel Gabilondo (PSOE).

Rodríguez is once again in the thick of the news.

He reactivates his network of contacts in all media.

He influences again.

In some media, he is almost in charge.

And he enjoys it like a child.

“He loves being in the spotlight, the power,” describes a source to explain that Rodríguez, 60, has not yet responded to the siren songs that come to him from the private sector.

“MÁR's attitude is always the same: everything the hard way, and if you don't like it, then they'll screw you,” explains a politician who knows the ins and outs of that government duo of convenience.

Those who have lived with this professional couple describe a two-faced Rodríguez.

He harsh and harsh with the counselors.

He is able to give them “a voice, a shout, a 'because I said so' while he holds their arm” in situations of maximum tension, such as the pandemic, to protect and praise the figure of Díaz Ayuso.

And another kind Rodríguez, conversational and smiling, with steely and sparkling eyes in his conversations with the president.

For her, whose house he chose for an interview with Bertín Osborne, he also acts as 'Mr. No': he makes sure that her schedule is reasonable and not filled with commitments that make her day-to-day life unmanageable.

Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, Isabel Díaz Ayuso and Bertín Osborne, during an interview.Jonas Torres jonas@jonas-torres.com

“In addition to my chief of staff, he is, above all, my friend,” the president of Madrid said about him at the campaign closing rally for the May 2021 elections. “And he is every day,” he wanted to emphasize.

“He left behind his chores, his projects, and enrolled in this wonderful adventure,” she added.

And she revealed: "He is for me a squire, a protector, a companion on adventures, the person who amuses me the most, who inspires me the most and who teaches me the most."

For this reason, when controversy breaks out over the hoax launched against two journalists from EL PAÍS, condemned by professional associations, unions, and opposition parties, MÁR does not even flinch.

His relationship with Ayuso is almost symbiotic.

His position is not in danger.

He is so sure that he admits the authorship of the messages that originate the news against the informants of this newspaper, and he reaffirms his content two days later in an interview with La Sexta.

“I have never lied or threatened any journalist [in reference to the message sent to an informant from

elDiario.es

in which he said: 'We are going to crush you'] nor have I spread any hoax.

Therefore, I am not going to resign nor has Ayuso requested my dismissal.

“I continue to have the confidence of the president and I will continue to be her chief of staff, no matter how much the opposition asks for my immediate dismissal,” this chain reproduces her words.

It is the peace of mind of someone who already has proof that nothing can happen to them.

Because Rodríguez navigated with Ayuso the

Avalmadrid case

and the crises that have led the baroness to devour Ciudadanos, to reduce Vox, or to overthrow Casado for denouncing that the president's brother charged a commission for providing the masks that the company needed Priviet to fulfill a 1.5 million euro contract signed with the regional Administration.

Battles in which they have formed a team full of complicity, in which the president's press chief, José Luis Carreras, and the deputy chief of staff, Francisco García de Diego, also participate.

This is how a source who has had government responsibilities in Madrid sums it all up: “Neither MÁR is going to resign, nor is the president going to dismiss him.

If she did it, Ayuso as we know it is over.”

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