The municipal counter-power to Ayuso in the Community of Madrid

MadridOf the 179 municipalities in the Community of Madrid, 114, almost 64% of the total, are governed by the PP. The percentage increases if we focus on the 37 with the largest populations. 70% of the municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants are tinged blue. The Isabel Díaz Ayuso effect caused the left to even lose some of its strongholds in southern Madrid, traditionally called the red belt, in the last local elections of 2023, as is the case with Móstoles and Leganés –second and fourth most populated cities–. The popular party also snatched Alcalá de Henares and Alcobendas from the PSOE –third and tenth, located to the east and north, respectively.

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However, the left still resists in five of the eleven municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants. Getafe, Fuenlabrada, Alcorcón, Parla, and Rivas-Vaciamadrid –all of them to the south– embody municipal counter-power to Ayuso and resist the onslaught of the PP of Madrid in their particular race to achieve even more pronounced hegemony in the region. "We represent two completely different models," reflects Javier Ayala, the socialist mayor of Fuenlabrada, who speaks to el ARA in his office, which has never been occupied by a PP politician. The PSOE has governed uninterruptedly for the last 47 years.

Ayala, who of these has governed with an absolute majority for the last eight, claims that this support is explained because they have a "city strategy" based on the commitment to public services, the dynamism of sociocultural life, and direct contact with citizens. The mayor contrasts it with Ayuso's model, which he defines as "zero management, confrontation with the Spanish government, and criticism of anyone who is not blue." A similar argument is made by the mayor of Rivas-Vaciamadrid, Aída Castillejo, from Izquierda Unida (IU), in a phone conversation with this newspaper. Her party has governed this municipality since 1991 and she has held the position for the last four years.

"That fifteen kilometers from the Puerta del Sol there is a city that demonstrates that it can be governed better, defending public services in contrast to privatizations, greatly annoys the Community of Madrid and Génova," states Castillejo. From her municipal team, they emphasize that their city model is based on a "very powerful" network of associations and entities, a history of "struggle for social rights," and a "good quality of life" with "many of its own activities." Hence, they claim, they have even been described as a "Gallic village" in the southeast of Madrid.

Make up for the lack of investment

"The Community is neither here nor expected," Ayala stresses at one point in the interview, regarding his desire to promote a joint agreement to revitalize the city's industrial estates. The socialist mayor assures that the city council must implement policies that "very clearly combat the neglect" of Ayuso's government. Ayala cites as an example a municipal allocation of two and a half million euros for scholarships for university students from Fuenlabrada, when "this is the responsibility of the Community of Madrid." "There are many resources we could allocate to improve other services if they did their job," he defends.

"We have assumed responsibilities that were not ours," which is "economically unbearable," agrees the mayor of Rivas-Vaciamadrid, who cites the "air conditioning" of schools as an example. In this exercise of opposition to Ayuso from the municipal level, the left-wing coalition led by IU has also taken the regional executive to court for refusing to apply the state housing law that allows for limiting rental prices. However, although they proclaim that with a progressive regional government they could do even more, in both municipalities Ayuso won the 2023 regional elections and, in the case of Rivas, the PP was also the leading force in the municipal elections, albeit without being able to govern.

"Institutional disloyalty"

Both Ayala and Castillejo maintain that there is not only a clash between models but that Ayuso has a will to "mistreat anyone who does not agree with the PP" while granting preferential treatment to allied mayors. "They conduct policies stealthily and maliciously, trying to harm the municipality," says the mayor of Fuenlabrada, recalling the clash they had a year ago with the Community over the reception of migrant minors. The mayoress of Rivas-Vaciamadrid speaks of "institutional disloyalty". "Where before [with previous PP governments] there was a possibility of agreement, now it is impossible to see you with the president of the Community," says Castillejo.

Complaints about the difficulties in getting Ayuso to receive them are a common denominator among left-wing mayors. Socialist mayors of Getafe and Parla have also denounced this, and there have been various controversies generated by the fact that the Madrid president has made institutional visits to these municipalities without informing the mayors.

Ideological battle

The reaction of the Madrid PP to these complaints has been ridicule. Ayuso's agenda is public, argued the number two of Ayuso in the Madrid PP, Alfonso Serrano, in response to Ayala, who has also attacked Rivas-Vaciamadrid on other occasions for being "the laboratory of a failed model". Both mayors complain that the PP exercises a "brusque" opposition against them, not constructive and with personal disqualifications. PP sources in the two municipalities consulted by ARA accuse, on the other hand, these mayors of being the ones who seek to oppose Ayuso with measures that are more ideological than good for the municipalities, waving flags such as that of Palestine or 'No to war' to the detriment of security or cleanliness.