David Fernández: "Feijóo has two political rivals, one is Sánchez and the other is Ayuso"

MadridFrom being disparagingly called the Monguer by some of her party colleagues to receiving the nickname of the Empress. The rise of Isabel Díaz Ayuso within the Madrid PP has been as surprising as it has been meteoric. How has she managed to go from contempt to hegemony? The journalist David Fernández (Madrid, 1975) analyzes this trajectory in the book Ayuso. Zancadillas, intrigas y venganzas en la Corte de Madrid (Libros del K.O., 2026), an unauthorized biography for which he has spoken with 180 people who have known the current president of the Community of Madrid in different stages of her political career.

What is the key to Ayuso's political evolution?

— The nickname 'Monguer' was given to her when she was a backbench deputy in the Madrid Assembly, during the 2011-2015 term. She was a nobody, a fourth-rate militant, of whom it was said that she had a high school level of speech. Now that she has absolute power and rules the PP with an iron fist, no one says such things. The evolution of the character is shaped by power.

A power that in the book you even compare with that of an absolutist monarch like Louis XIV.

— She has total control of the administration with a cohort of admirers who fawn over her, like in those movies about French kings before the Revolution. She loves the privileges that come with power. As she says, not being able to enter a restaurant without people getting up from their tables to greet her. And within the party it is the same, also at the national level. There is a tacit agreement with Alberto Núñez Feijóo not to confront her.

Should the state PP leader fear that she might take his place?

— Yes, of course. Feijóo has two political rivals. One is Pedro Sánchez and the other is Isabel Díaz Ayuso. The friendship between Pablo Casado –predecessor of the Galician leader in the popular presidency– and Ayuso breaks when he realizes that she has national ambitions. If Feijóo governs it will be four years and I don't know if Ayuso's patience will last until 2030. It is also that she is a very peculiar character and you never know what she might do. And if Feijóo reaches the Moncloa I predict that Ayuso will not be treated as well in the media, because from the presidency of the government, the pie of institutional advertising to distribute is larger than from the regional one. On the other hand, as president of a party from the opposition you go to battle with a pocketknife when she has four rifles. Casado would not have ended up like this if he had been at the Moncloa.

You place the signing of Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, his chief of staff, as one of the keys to his consolidation.

— The influence is 100% total. When she arrives at the presidency of the Community of Madrid in 2019, the position is too big for her. She is a young, rebellious, traditional woman, with a lot of ambition, but who is very green. He hires her because she needs someone to help her. And he, who has done everything in politics and who likes to manipulate, sees her as manageable. He is a goldsmith and can build the character from scratch. She is not the most prepared politician, but she has a language that reaches people, with simple phrases. He has created a perfect machine.

What impact has the luxury penthouse scandal had on her?

— She is at her moment of greatest political weakness. A person gave me a good metaphor about her trajectory. It is like a rally. She has gone at full speed and has never skidded on the bends. The first scandal was her father's, who had a debt with Avalmadrid. Then came her brother's commission, because of which Casado fell. Another bend she takes without anything happening. Then she places her sister-in-law in a position at the Villanueva de la Cañada City Council without anyone finding out. And that textbook tax fraud of her boyfriend's. She doesn't skid either. The thing is that with the penthouse bend, she has skidded.

The left has predicted the end of Ayuso due to this episode and has compared her with the former Madrid president Cristina Cifuentes. Do you see it that way?

— The problem with Cifuentes is that she was more naive and got involved with very powerful people. The Quirón and Planeta groups. Ayuso is smarter, she knows what she has to do to stay in power. However, we will see how it evolves because the penthouse is a turning point. It is the first time that Ayuso, in two days, had to rectify because everything was done with such impunity that it was indefensible. She is very nervous and knows that it is an exercise in friendly fire. It was a very secret operation that very few people were involved in.

Who wishes her harm internally?

— She has left many corpses along the way. And there is a "pata negra" PP, as I call it, of great figures who are no longer in public office, but who continue to have influence in the party, who do not want Ayuso. Feijóo has also eaten popcorn with this affair. And I will also tell you that there is information that, if the people who want to make it public, makes Ayuso's future even darker.

Would it be the equivalent of Ayuso to Cifuentes' cream video?

— If they were creams, it would be simpler. Anything can happen. From seeing Ayuso sitting in the Moncloa in a few years to seeing her as a survivor –in reference to the reality show–, like Cifuentes, joking. Politics is capricious.