Thatcher Ayuso forgets Blanco White in London

LondonIsabel Díaz Ayuso, officially the Iron Lady of Madrid, as she has been baptized This Monday the British Conservative newspaper The Daily Telegraph, has brought to the City of London one of his usual messages that flirt with populism disguised as common sense and moderation. In an intervention in the Margaret Thatcher Conservative Political Conference 2025 –a coven of right-wingers, ultras, neocons and Trumpists that celebrates the legacy of the premier and wants to adapt it to the 21st century–, Ayuso has proclaimed herself the defender of "personal freedom" – a concept she contrasts with that of "individual freedom" – and the preacher of the virtues of "Spanish-style liberalism," although she most likely should have said "Madrid-style." An ideology in which "freedom, responsibility, courage, and truth are inseparable," she said.

Ayuso explained that she dedicated herself to this evangelizing mission after seeing the damage done by "the strategy of the woodworm," a conspiracy of the alliance of her particular demons – Pedro Sánchez, the communists, the independentists, nationalism, etc. – that was intended. Until she burst onto the Madrid political landscape. "We had to speak clearly, and restore faith in Spain," she commented in a speech in Spanish before a predominantly English-speaking audience. Ayuso, the first Spanish political figure to attend the meeting since it was held (2018), also took part as the main speaker.

During the fifteen minutes that the string of clichés and rhetorical formulas lasted ayusistas, The Madrid president has taken on the responsibility of defending "Spanish-style liberalism," making the term "liberal" once again "associated with the word truth."

Spanish-style liberalism

In addition to quoting Cervantes, he has also used some phrases from Gregorio Marañón and, of course, the inevitable Ortega y Gasset. But if we talk about Spanish-style liberalism, whatever it may be, and it is done in the United Kingdom, it is or should be obligatory to mention the figure of José María Blanco White. The journalist and theologian from Seville played a very prominent role in shaping Spanish liberal thought. In fact, his ideas led him to exile in London in 1810, from where he criticized (Letters from Spain, 1822) very harshly affected the Spain of religious orthodoxy and conservatism of the 18th and early 19th centuries. Ayuso, who appeared before the audience wearing a black suit, would have rivaled Blanco White, who today would oppose everything the president stands for: populist rhetoric and tax cuts.

If, instead of addressing the British public who heard her—all or almost all of them Conservatives—she had addressed an audience more accustomed to hearing her, I would probably have doubted whether she was referring to herself at certain points in the conference. For example, when she said that "if we engage in demagoguery, fuel civil war, lie, appeal to feelings, fear, or are not understood, we will have become like them, like those whose ideas we combat." This was intended to criticize the disseminators of "political woke, which are nothing more than another disguise for communism."

Ayuso's intervention in a setting such as London's Guildhall, the seat of the City government since medieval times, was more an international public relations operation than a contribution to what was theoretically being debated during the day: "and of the West. And to be the second home for all those who seek freedom and prosperity. This is our liberal way of doing politics. Therefore, our answer to the question: "Freedom, for what?" Is always the same: "Freedom to live," was her response.

The Prosecutor's Office is investigating the residences

Ayuso subsequently addressed the Madrid Prosecutor's Office's filing of nine complaints this Monday to investigate whether any of Madrid's nursing homes denied healthcare on discriminatory grounds and failed to refer patients to hospitals. True to her narrative, she simply stated that "the Socialists want to seize all the powers of the State." "They're against me," she added.