Ayuso's tortuous end of year

MadridIsabel Díaz Ayuso has arrived at the month of August more cornered than ever. The controversial trip to Mexico a few months ago, the judicial investigation against her partner, and the management of the serious fires that have affected the Community of Madrid are added to the latest controversy that has shaken her figure. This is the purchase and subsequent hurried sale of a luxury attic in Chamberí with a value of 6.6 million euros — the Community of Madrid published the sale announcement this Friday — surrounded by contradictory statements and unconvincing justifications. Initially, the Madrid government maintained that it had to be converted into a temporary office – even though it is not enabled as such – during the works on the Royal House of Correos, headquarters of the executive. But 24 hours after the information was made public, it hurried to sell the property, claiming that it would be used to rebuild the Western Sierra after the fires.

Also, this week Ayuso denied that her intention was to settle there and was distancing itself from the purchase: “I have no idea,” he said on Wednesday. After explanations that have not convinced, the opposition has stood up in war, a lawyer has reported it to the Court of Auditors, the PSOE has taken it to the Prosecutor's Office and Justice Europe, to ordinary justice for alleged embezzlement. Likewise, the management has raised the suspicions of the Spanish press in two very critical editorials: theABC regretted which was an irrational purchase with an “opacity incompatible with democratic standards” and The Worldquestioned a "strange operation" and demanded "profuse and convincing explanations". All this has coincided with the sale of the penthouse where Ayuso lives with her partner.

From Més Madrid, they believe that the Madrid president is at a moment of maximum weakness and maintain that she is even questioned internally. They refer to the leak to El País of a message that was sent to Popular deputies to try to rally around Ayuso: “We ask for your collaboration to share positive comments. It would be good to set an example and pull the cart of support messages,” they asked from the party. September will be a key month.

The delegated management of fires

The penthouse controversy has erupted just days after the flames took center stage. Isabel Díaz Ayuso was forced to request the declaration of a national emergency due to the "gravity" and "simultaneity" of the forest fires that affected the Community of Madrid, which gave command of the management to the Spanish government. "We have fires beyond our extinction capacity," admitted the Madrid president. And Minister Óscar Puente hit the nail on the head: "You ask for help from a government you spend your life insulting and disqualifying," he reproached her. That said, after this initial clash, the management of the fires was marked by good cooperation and coordination.

The magnifying glass over his partner

In parallel, during the last few weeks there have also been developments regarding the investigation into her partner. In mid-June, the judge authorized the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard to access the banking information of Alberto González Amador and requested information from sixteen banks about movements and balances between January 2014 and the present. This is the separate case regarding alleged corruption in business related to Quirón.

Shortly after, a report from the Tax Agency – which ARA had access to–, revealed that Alberto González Amador invoiced Quirón 4.4 million euros from 2021 to 2023, the first three years of his relationship with the Madrid president. Furthermore, it pointed out that one of his companies did not have the "necessary means" to offer the "consulting services" it billed for, as it only had resources "related to aesthetic or beauty treatments".

An incendiary trip to Mexico

If we go back, three months ago Isabel Díaz Ayuso made a controversial institutional trip to Mexico in which she set fire to the diplomatic relations between the two countries by praising the conqueror Hernán Cortés. Cornered by criticism, she ended up leaving earlier than planned and attributed her hasty return – four days earlier than planned – to the “boycott” by the government of the progressive Claudia Sheinbaum. “We had to disappear, we were in danger,” she even said. Now the Community of Madrid has made the expenses public on the transparency portal, but has only acknowledged 623 euros for the authorities' lounge at Barajas airport.

Judicial cases of two mayors

Another scandal that has splashed the PP of Madrid has been the alleged labor and sexual harassment by the current mayor of Móstoles, Manuel Bautista, against a former councilwoman of the party in the municipality. He was formally charged less than a month ago. When the case came to light in February, the PP rallied behind him and downplayed the facts: Ayuso said it was a "fabricated case" against the Populars and her number two called it a "movie".

Likewise, on Thursday it became known that a judge has brought the mayor of Alcalá de Henares, Judith Piquet, to the brink of trial for an alleged crime of revelation of secrets for leaking two complaints of sexual assault that were linked to immigrants. At that time, she justified that it was necessary to "save" the president.