“Impunity, illegality, and disorder cannot continue to roam at will in Puerta del Sol”. The government of the Community of Madrid, led by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, is raising the tone and demanding that the Moncloa evict the encampment that was set up on Saturday in Puerta del Sol, right in front of the Royal Post Office, the headquarters of the Madrid presidency. After the protesters have spent their third night there, the Madrid executive has sent a formal request to the Spanish government's Delegation to remove them within a maximum period of 48 hours.

The 6.3 million euro luxury penthouse acquired by the Community of Madrid has become a thorn in the side for Isabel Díaz Ayuso's government. The controversy, which threatens to grow even larger following the traumatic eviction of Maricarmen Abascal, has reached the courts and also the Court of Auditors. But almost two months after El País exposed the purchase, it remains surrounded by unknowns, changing narratives, and contradictions. A similar situation, tragedy aside, to the one that occurred with Carlos Mazón regarding his role on the day of the DANA in the Valencian Community.

"The image of the Community of Madrid government is Formula 1 this past weekend." With these words, Isabel Díaz Ayuso made clear how important the Grand Prix of motoring, dubbed Madring, is for her political project. The Madrid president has fully committed to the event and has turned it into a showcase for her management model, ignoring the criticisms it has generated among residents, the opposition, and even pilots who participated in the urban circuit. The leader of the Madrid PP has defended it by contrasting a supposed defeatism of the left, which would want a diminished capital, with the spectacular nature and "resounding success" of Madrid, which hosts major events and demonstrates to the world an "extraordinary organizational capacity." The F1 arrives at a delicate moment for Ayuso: the luxury penthouse scandal is not fading, and this very Friday she admitted that she went to see the property without the intention of living in it, and the judge has already taken a step to investigate the matter.

No one wanted to buy Isabel Díaz Ayuso's luxury penthouse. The auction of the property remained deserted, according to the documentation from Planifica Madrid, which was finally made known this Thursday. That the attempt to sell the controversial penthouse has been, for the moment, frustrated, became known a few minutes before the Minister of the Presidency, Miguel Ángel García Martín, who is the president of Planifica Madrid –the public company that acquired the property for 6.3 million euros and subsequently put it up for sale for almost 6.8–, appeared at the plenary session of the Madrid Assembly. It was a highly anticipated appearance to clarify the unknowns about the operation and it did not convince the opposition. What the minister did respond is that they will put the property up for auction again because they are determined to sell it.

Catalonia 40, Madrid 0. This is the claim made by Isabel Díaz Ayuso and the PP of the Community of Madrid regarding the public money costs of Formula 1. While the Madrid president's team wields this controversial comparison in millions of euros, the Madrid left, associations of residents affected by the Madrid Grand Prix, and environmental organizations, such as Greenpeace, have questioned the narrative of the Popular Party and reject the claim that the organization of this major event will not be to the detriment of the public treasury.

The day after Isabel Díaz Ayuso appeared for more than two hours in the Madrid Assembly without giving explanations about the luxury penthouse, the opposition's attacks provoked a reaction from the Madrid president after they accused her of "corruption".The penthouse and the chao, pescao will be the epitaph of her political life," declared this Friday the spokesperson for Más Madrid in the regional chamber, Manuela Bergerot. The opposition leader argued that the purchase of the 6.3 million euro property is "the definitive proof" that Ayuso "is corrupt". In the same vein, the PSOE denounced that the leader of the Madrid PP "has thought herself God and has become drunk on power". "The penthouse is a before and after. Her bargain is over, and her political career too," asserted the socialist spokesperson, Mar Espinar.

After a summer haunted by the luxury penthouse scandal, in what has been the most compromising episode of her political career, Isabel Díaz Ayuso has tried to turn the page on the crisis by claiming that both she and her executive are in top form and have "more desire than ever." That is the message and energy she wanted to convey this Thursday in a two-hour appearance at the Madrid Assembly, which is holding the debate on the state of the region, in which the Madrid president offered no further explanations regarding the controversial purchase of the property. "Let's talk about issues that really matter" with "optimism and enthusiasm," claim sources from the PP of Madrid. The popular bench gave a standing ovation to Ayuso's intervention, whom even internal voices had questioned over the management of the luxury penthouse controversy, and their leader boasted about her project without making any self-criticism and focusing her speech on reeling off a cascade of announcements –"100 new measures" in various areas– and on attacking Pedro Sánchez.

Obviously, the headline is ironic. And if not, judge for yourselves. It turns out that Eduardo Inda has published an interview with the President of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, on the eve of the Formula 1 Grand Prix celebration. And what follows are the questions he asks her, all very witty and, above all, incisive. First: "We have toured the entire circuit, there are a lot of Spanish flags, right? That's a bit far-right, a bit fascist, a bit reactionary. And that flag, which is bigger than the one in Colón...". Second: "At every turn, everywhere there is the Spanish flag. The government delegate, Francisco Martín, would surely have preferred Bildu flags". Third: "The truth is that what we have seen is impressive, colossal, there is nothing like it in the world". Fourth: "The area full of bars and restaurants is very good, it looks like the Plaza Mayor, with very well-known places. Whose idea was it?". Fifth: "I love so many Spanish flags, I'm very fascist, very far-right, but I love it". Sixth: "What did you think of the banked turn?" Seventh: "They say it will be the circuit with the most public transport in the world". Eighth: "You said that the Grand Prix would not cost the taxpayer a single euro. Do you maintain that?" (This is the only question that is saved, and Ayuso's answer is: "Why can the Catalonia Grand Prix have 40 million and Madrid zero?" In other words, it will cost the taxpayers money.) Ninth: "Manuela Bergerot, spokesperson for Més Madrid, who is a picturesque character, has said that the Grand Prix will not contribute anything to the people of Madrid". Tenth: "Will the Prime Minister come?" Eleventh: "Will any minister or representative of the central government come?" Twelfth: "And the friend of Bildu and ETA, the government delegate".

At this point, the only interest of the political figure of the president of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, is to personify the idea of banal power: raw power that has no other objective or purpose than to keep power itself running –and to benefit from it, of course, herself and a circle formed by accomplices and usurers (to whom favors must be returned with interest)–. Her ideological positions are inconsistent, vague; even her anti-Catalanism is routine, a chapter from the same instruction manual that also includes Madrid nationalism, the exaltation of the “Christian roots” of Spanish culture (whatever it is that these people understand by Spanish culture), the vindication of Spanish colonialism in America, anti-feminism, or the denial of climate change and the pandemic.The Community of Madrid –an administrative and political artifact that should be discussed in depth, starting with its very reason for existing– has long since become an optimal gear of this way of understanding power, in which politics, finance, justice, and the media configure, in effect, a state within a state, with its own laws written nowhere but known to everyone. An oligarchy, if you want to call it that. The most forceful staging of the effectiveness and refinement achieved by this gear is the confrontation between the Community of Madrid and the government of Spain presided over by Sánchez and with the Generalitat presided over by Illa, as powers aligned within the socialist sphere. The most raw and spectacular episode –so far– of this confrontation has been starred in by Ayuso and her advisor Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, a character who completely contradicts the profile of spin doctors as brains hidden in the shadows or behind the scenery of power. Rodríguez, who is a loudmouth, is enthusiastic about cameras, microphones, and social media, and he allowed himself the luxury of announcing step by step the fall of an entire Attorney General of the State without the judiciary, which had to carry out the script that Rodríguez was anticipating –the Supreme Court–, having any hesitation at all when it came to carrying out such a clumsy and brazen move. On the contrary, there was clear self-satisfaction in it all.One of the most recognizable ingredients in this recipe for understanding power is impunity, which has intoxicating, stupefying, and aphrodisiac effects. Just as it acts as a state within a state, the power of the Community of Madrid also likes to act as a party within the party, and Ayuso and her circle have created the myth of having toppled a secretary general and presidential candidate (Casado), and of having the next one (Feijóo) in their hands. But lately, Feijóo has allowed himself to leave Ayuso alone in the penthouse scandal and at Friday's meeting of the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council, which was attended by all the barons of the Popular Party, in contrast to Ayuso's snub. Impunity is a substance that has powerful highs, but also sudden crashes.

It is common that when a media outlet breaks an exclusive, they claim the topic and follow it up in detail, among other things to prevent others from appropriating it. "This topic must be ours," is often heard in newsrooms. This is precisely what is happening these days The Country with the news of Isabel Díaz Ayuso's penthouse, revealed on July 28 and which is still ongoing, to the despair of the Madrid president, who on August 24 complained that "the gum could no longer be stretched" on the penthouse, in that speech crowned by a very traditional "goodbye fish". But The Country has continued to publish information almost every day, and even a delicious piece on which the obsession of Spaniards with penthouses was analyzed based on cinematographic references such as Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.

The choice of words is important, as is the non-choice. With levels of language, orality, false rhetoric, imposture, care, swear words, barbarisms, slang, we build a way of understanding the world. On the trip to Sicily that we took with readers of ARA and Il Viagetto, a Sicilian woman explained to us that she and her daughter understood each other with a language of signs and facial expressions that, on the other hand, her son, who lived in England, did not understand. The gesture of cutting the throat, furrowing the brows and bringing the fingers together – “Like a magnolia”, as Víctor Català would say – touching the heart, touching the nose... We imitate the everyday way of speaking of mothers, grandmothers, and politicians.

Isabel Díaz Ayuso's all-powerful chief of staff, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, has taken offense because a media outlet, in this case El País, published that the Madrid president has rented an apartment in an exclusive urbanization in Puerta del Hierro. "It's the first time a politician's home is being persecuted... Incredible," he tweeted.

It 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 could most harm the popular leader, just ten months before the regional elections.

When I was starting to worry about not finding good merchandise to start my summer shift in replacement of Àlex Gutiérrez, I came across a piece that, on its own, would be enough to write a whole week of Pareu màquines (don't worry, I won't). It's a piece from the supplement Yo Dona, from El Mundo, titled as follows: “Isabel Díaz Ayuso wears her summer fetish dress to La Paloma: plunging neckline and cut-outs at the waist to show off her abs”. I really don't know where to start.

An “anti-party” that “does not align with any ideology” and rejects the “regime of 78” is responsible for the National High Court investigating the massive entry of migrants into Ceuta and that, in parallel, a court in Madrid has opened a criminal case regarding the purchase of the luxury penthouse for Isabel Díaz Ayuso. It is Iustitia Europa, a group known for intervening as popular prosecution in judicial cases involving the PSOE environment and which will make the leap to general elections in 2027. “We are transversal and we defend that the solution to corruption must come from civil society. After almost fifty years, we have a serious problem in Spain and we must move away from left-wing and right-wing ideologies,” defends its president, Luis María Pardo, in conversation with ARA.

Isabel 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.

There are rights that protect specific freedoms. And there are others that, in addition, allow us to measure the democratic quality of a society. The right to abortion belongs to this second category. Not only because it guarantees that no person can be forced to carry a pregnancy against their will, but because it establishes a fundamental limit on the power of the state: deciding about reproduction. That is why it is one of the most reliable indicators of democratic health.Every time this limit is questioned, the debate goes far beyond abortion. What is at stake is the relationship between people's autonomy and the ability of public authorities to intervene in bodies, families, and the model of society. It is no coincidence that sexual and reproductive rights are among the first objectives to be overthrown by authoritarian projects. When a power seeks to redefine who is part of the community, who should reproduce it, and what values should sustain it, it ends up governing reproduction.We saw it in 2013 with the Gallardón counter-reform. Feminist mobilization demonstrated that frontally restricting the right to abortion had an enormous political cost. But reactionary offensives do not disappear when they fail. They mutate.Today the debate is filled with concepts such as birth rate, family, maternity, "culture of life",unborn child or demographic crisis. It seems we are changing the subject, but the dispute remains the same: who governs reproduction.This displacement responds to a profound crisis. Precariousness, the crisis of care, aging, difficulties in accessing housing, and migratory movements question the way we sustain life. Nancy Fraser describes it as a crisis of social reproduction, a crisis that affects the conditions that make life itself possible.Faced with this, feminisms propose expanding rights and guaranteeing the material conditions so that all people can freely decide whether they want to have children, when, and under what conditions to raise them with dignity: the horizon of reproductive justice.Authoritarian projects, on the other hand, ask what reproduction the state needs. They annul reproductive autonomy as a starting point and open the way to a demographic and identity policy, an old and powerful tool of social control with which Margaret Atwood made us shudder in her dystopia, and which today reappears in many Western democracies.The pieces are fitting together. The unborn concept of Ayuso and Feijóo as a legal category; the family law from the PP-Vox agreement in Andalusia; the maternity offices in Alicante and Seville; the mandatory listening to fetal heartbeats in Castile and León; the speeches on "national priority" and the theories of "great replacement" are not unrelated or independent initiatives, but rather form part of the same conceptual framework. An entire political architecture that progressively displaces the debate and hierarchizes which families and which maternities deserve to be protected and which do not so much.Its strength is that they no longer need to attack the right to abortion head-on, it is enough to shift common imaginaries. To make the question stop being whether women should be able to decide about their bodies and become about how the state should respond to the demographic crisis or the protection of "life". The Overton window on reproduction: it does not eliminate rights overnight, but rather turns what seemed unthinkable into socially acceptable.

The controversial purchase –and subsequent sale– of a luxury penthouse in Madrid's Chamberí neighborhood has reached the Court of Auditors. It was reported by a lawyer who, given the “impossibility of accessing” the documentation on this operation, wished to “bring to the attention” of the supervisory body a “set of facts that appear to have caused a deficit to public funds”. The case broke out last week, when The Country revealed that the Community of Madrid had bought a 485 square meter luxury penthouse to serve as a "temporary office" for Isabel Díaz Ayuso's government during the works at the Madrid regional government headquarters in Puerta del Sol, although this was not known. Despite this, 24 hours later, the executive announced that the property would come and would allocate the money to the reconstruction of the fire that has devastated the western mountain range.

The saying that some news is better understood when placed side by side sometimes works. For example, it is a fact that the Community of Madrid has purchased, through a public company, a nearly 500-square-meter penthouse in one of Madrid's most luxurious areas. This purchase, valued between four and six million euros, was made without public bidding and was not budgeted for anywhere. The response from the president, the inevitable Ayuso, has been to play the victim once again (she stated she is once again the victim of a "smear campaign"). She also offered a kind of explanation according to which this luxury penthouse will be an "office" where "institutional meetings can be held temporarily" while renovations are carried out on another building, and that it is not clear if she will have to use it. On the same day, Ayuso announced that they were opening a section on the Community of Madrid's website to "safely channel donations for the reconstruction of the Sierra Oeste," and the next day, the Community made the astonishing announcement that they will now sell the penthouse in question "to help those affected by the fires": neither is public money managed like this, as if it were a child's game, nor are citizens necessarily idiots. "Reconstruction," by the way, is the word used by the Generalitat Valenciana to administer, also with notable opacity, the funds intended to repair the damage from the storm of October 29, 2024. Still in Mazón's time, the Generalitat's coffers received twelve million euros in donations from citizens who wanted to contribute to this cause, of which nothing more has ever been heard. There is no news that either Mazón or Ayuso have had to appear before the courts for the very alleged corruption surrounding them.On the contrary, it is another known fact that, despite the forceful ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in favor of the amnesty law, and despite having granted a handful of more technical amnesties in homeopathic doses, the Spanish Supreme Court refuses to grant amnesty to the political leaders of the Procés for a crime of embezzlement that has only existed in the imagination of the accusers and the magistrates who convicted them. The call for a referendum on self-determination was part of the electoral program of the parties that formed a fully legitimate and democratic Government, and with the expenses to carry out this referendum, it has not been proven that anyone profited from it. Furthermore, the then Minister of Finance, Cristóbal Montoro, stated that "not a single cent of public money" had been spent on "the Chinese ballot boxes". By the way: the so-called Montoro case, a major corruption scandal in which the Tax Agency and the Ministry of Finance would have been used to commit extortion and other crimes, has seen the judge extend its investigation by six more months this week, a speed inversely proportional to the gravity of the case. As we were saying: sometimes, putting news side by side helps to understand it better.

The Community of Madrid has decided to get rid of the 485-square-meter penthouse it bought as a "temporary office" for Isabel Díaz Ayuso's government, as reported by the Madrid government this Wednesday at noon after its governing council meeting. This comes after 24 hours of controversy since the purchase of the property was made public following information from "The Country, Ayuso's government has decided to include this penthouse in the sale of four properties owned by her located on Gran Vía in Madrid.