The penthouse of discord: the keys to the scandal that can most harm Ayuso

MadridIt has been twenty days since the scandal of Isabel Díaz Ayuso's luxury penthouse came to light, and the controversy continues to haunt the Madrid president. The political and media brawl is intrinsic to the way the leader of the PP of Madrid operates, but the type of operation and the communication management carried out by the Community of Madrid in recent weeks has turned this episode into the one that can most harm the popular leader, just ten months before the regional elections.

An inconsistent narrative

Starting the account in reverse chronological order, Ayuso's latest statements, from this very Monday, highlight her latest strategy to escape the spotlight. It consists, in part, of using a common wildcard, which is to point to the Spanish government. In a press conference, the Madrid president lashed out at the "lifestyle" she attributes to Pedro Sánchez and his ministers, arguing that a dozen of them use official residences. Ayuso defended that she, on the other hand, "has never needed it nor asked for it." "I will not need it ten months before an election," she assured.

In this way, the Madrid president tried to dissociate the purchase of the luxury penthouse from an alleged attempt to obtain an official residence through the back door. Although Ayuso denies that this was the reason, the inconsistency of previous explanations makes it difficult for the Madrid president to emerge unscathed from this crisis with this argument, as it has even generated doubts within her own party. The leader of the PP in Madrid is risking not only a matter of image and internal leadership but also revalidating the absolute majority in the 2027 elections, with a Vox on the rise that in recent months has already managed to enter the governments of four regional PP governments.

The fact that the first official justification from the Community of Madrid to the publication by El País, on July 29, of the opaque purchase of the penthouse in Chamberí, three months earlier, for 6.3 million euros, has practically immediately been one of the main problems for Ayuso. Shortly after stating that it had been acquired to be used as an office and meeting space for the president during the works on the headquarters of the presidency of Madrid, in the Puerta del Sol, it became known that the property had an exclusively residential use. That the purchase was made equally and without publicity by a public company, Planifica Madrid, has generated many unresolved doubts.

The decision to announce that the penthouse was being put up for sale, the very next day after the purchase came to light, caused even more confusion and confirmed that an error was being acknowledged. To all this must be added that Ayuso decided to use, amidst accusations of political opportunism, the serious fires in Madrid to justify the subsequent sale, assuring that what was obtained would be directly destined for the reconstruction of the affected areas.

Internal unrest

This concatenation of events has caused unease in the PP. Alberto Núñez Feijóo remains silent and the rest of the state Popular leadership has stepped aside. Although the PP leadership has avoided criticizing Ayuso's management, they have not defended it either. The discursive line in Génova has been, for days, to state that she has already given explanations and to try to turn the page. However, the discomfort is palpable. "There is nothing new to say. She has given all explanations actively, passively, and periphrastically," the deputy secretary Cuca Gamarra limited herself to evasively pointing out this Monday at a press conference, when asked by the press.

Other voices in the party have admitted in private that it was a mistake and, even publicly, the deputy spokesperson for the PP in Congress and a free spirit from the party's hard wing, Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, stated in El País that she did not understand what was happening with the luxury penthouse. The former president of the Community of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, also ended up admitting, in a discussion on Cuatro, that it is a mess that she has not fully understood either. Furthermore, editorials in media outlets from the right-wing media environment, such as ABC and El Mundo, criticized the operation.

The battle over corruption

At a time when the PP's discourse focuses on attacking judicial cases of alleged corruption surrounding the PSOE and when housing is the main concern of citizens, this scandal has been the perfect weapon for the opposition to Ayuso. From the left, some voices have even dared to predict that it is "the beginning of the end" for the Madrid president, for whom the final stretch of the term is becoming complicated. Más Madrid has already announced a parliamentary offensive upon returning to classes in September, with requests for appearances at the Assembly of Madrid by those responsible for Planifica Madrid and also for scrutiny of the entity.

The PSOE has also taken the matter to the courts, and both parties are already talking about possible embezzlement of public funds and prevarication. Ayuso will face their attacks as soon as the political term begins, with the debate on the state of the region scheduled for September 10 and 11, which will coincide with the biggest reputational crisis the leader of the Madrid PP has faced so far. This Monday, the president of Madrid already tried to hold her "adversaries" responsible for what she presented as another campaign of discrediting against her.