Ayuso replies to Sánchez that "yes I love you": "Like all the 'dogs' that sleep in a palace"

MadridAfter a summer haunted by the luxury penthouse scandal, in what has been the most compromising episode of her political career, Isabel Díaz Ayuso has tried to turn the page on the crisis by claiming that both she and her executive are in top form and have "more desire than ever." That is the message and energy she wanted to convey this Thursday in a two-hour appearance at the Madrid Assembly, which is holding the debate on the state of the region, in which the Madrid president offered no further explanations regarding the controversial purchase of the property. "Let's talk about issues that really matter" with "optimism and enthusiasm," claim sources from the PP of Madrid. The popular bench gave a standing ovation to Ayuso's intervention, whom even internal voices had questioned over the management of the luxury penthouse controversy, and their leader boasted about her project without making any self-criticism and focusing her speech on reeling off a cascade of announcements –"100 new measures" in various areas– and on attacking Pedro Sánchez.

The coincidence of the debate, which will continue this Friday with the opposition's reply, with the declassification of reports on Ceuta that has put the Spanish government on the ropes, has provided ammunition to a Madrid president accustomed to being a leading voice in the national media agenda. The first twenty minutes of her appearance were dedicated exclusively to the migration crisis and, just as she has done on other occasions –messages from her chief of staff, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, warning that people close to the Spanish president will go to court–, she has warned Sánchez that his management of the "invasion" could have legal consequences. "There are documents that incriminate him for doing nothing in the face of the warning of an invasion from Morocco. We will see the legal path this takes," she stressed. Ayuso described Sánchez as an "absent" president cornered by the "blackmail of unconfessable interests."

"He, who calls himself perro,does have a master. Like all the perros that sleep in a palace", she stated, using this expression as a direct retort to Sánchez, who this Wednesday in Congress claimed that he "can be perro", in reference to the nickname Perro Sanxe, but that he "has no master". Ayuso has argued that Sánchez has had an attitude of "vassalage" towards Morocco and has accused him of "treason". In this sense, the strategy of the Madrid president is to try to contrast the "decomposition" she attributes to the Spanish executive with the supposed "great political and institutional stability" of Madrid. Ayuso has boasted, among other things, of the "extraordinary organizational capacity" of the region, which is hosting a Formula 1 Grand Prix this weekend. "In Madrid, we are living our best moment while Spain is going through its worst," she asserted.

It will not be until tomorrow that Ayuso has to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the opposition, which disagrees with this triumphalist narrative and will arrive at the plenary session eager to draw blood during one of the lowest points for the Madrid president. In the corridors of the regional chamber, the left already demanded this Thursday the resignation of Ayuso due to the luxury penthouse episode, and even a bus with the Més Madrid logo paraded in front of the Madrid Assembly during the morning with the face of the Madrid president and the phrase "For you, an impossible rent; for her, a luxury penthouse". Also Vox, which in the erosion of Ayuso due to this scandal may find an opportunity to crack the absolute majority of the Madrid president in next year's elections, intends to attack her and has criticized that in her first intervention she ignored the "reality" and the "collapse" that the people of Madrid are experiencing.