Miguel Ángel Rodríguez tastes his own medicine

BarcelonaIsabel Díaz Ayuso's all-powerful chief of staff, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, has taken offense because a media outlet, in this case El País, published that the Madrid president has rented an apartment in an exclusive urbanization in Puerta del Hierro. "It's the first time a politician's home is being persecuted... Incredible," he tweeted.

The beauty of social networks is that they particularly punish hypocrisy, and automatically many tweeters recalled the times that Miguel Ángel Rodríguez or other PP leaders had spoken, for example, about Pablo Iglesias and Irene Montero's house in Galapagar, and which ended up requiring family protection due to the demonstrations they had at their door day after day. Ayuso herself, for example, had tweeted about the "casoplón", so she and her right-hand man are tasting their own medicine. But here there is an interesting deontological debate. Is it news or not, that Ayuso has rented a flat of a certain cost (between 25,000 and 3,000 euros per month in rent, at market price)?

Let's look at the facts. Ayuso, who does not have an official residence, moved into a luxury apartment owned by businessman Kike Sarasola during the pandemic, where she stayed for 69 days paying a price well below the usual. Then it became known that she had moved into a flat owned by her partner, who is being prosecuted for tax fraud. And finally, it became known that the Madrid government had bought a penthouse for more than 6 million euros to convert it into an official residence, although they later backed down. Therefore, there is a history that justifies journalistic interest in knowing where the Madrid president lives. In the same way that it will be news if she separates from the alleged tax evader Alberto González Amador, because with what face can Ayuso ask Madrid taxpayers to pay regional taxes if her partner is finally convicted?