The High Court of Justice of Madrid has ordered the Community of Madrid to "immediately" begin the procedures for creating a registry of conscientious objectors to voluntary terminations of pregnancy, a list mandated by law and approved by the Interterritorial Council (comprised of representatives from all autonomous communities). The ruling by the eighth section of the court's administrative chamber is a further step in the ongoing dispute between the government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso and the Ministry of Health, headed by Mónica García, which has resisted establishing a registry of professionals who refuse to perform abortions. In fact, the judges upheld the precautionary measures requested by the Ministry. The court specifies that although the precautionary measure does not require the Community of Madrid to create the registry immediately, it does impose the obligation to initiate the necessary administrative procedures to develop and approve it, in compliance with current regulations. However, she justifies the decision as a way to "combat the passivity" of the Madrid administration, since she believes there is a "risk of delay" and that the Ayuso government will try to "indefinitely prolong" the creation of the list.

The Minister of Housing and Urban Agenda, Isabel Rodríguez, stated this Wednesday that she would "love" to intervene in the Community of Madrid using Article 155. She said this in an interview on TVE after being asked about the fact that regions governed by the PP (People's Party), including Madrid, are not applying the price cap. "What comes to mind? Well, I would love to intervene in the Community of Madrid using Article 155," she said. And the only thing preventing her from doing so, she added, is that the Socialists do not have a "majority" in the Senate, which is essential to validate the intervention of a regional government and is currently controlled by the PP. "If I had a majority in the Senate, I would have already implemented it [Article 155]," she insisted at another point in the interview. Rodríguez compared the price freeze in Catalonia to the situation in Madrid. with the "double-digit" increase in rents in Madrid Or that the 15,000 illegal tourist apartments detected in the Spanish capital, which could be converted into residential units, are not being closed. "The people of Madrid should know that the one restricting the right to housing [...] is the president of the regional government," she said, referring to the administration of Isabel Díaz Ayuso. "If you are not willing to assume this responsibility, I am willing to assume it," she concluded.

The power struggle that the government of the popular Isabel Díaz Ayuso is maintaining with the Ministry of Health over thenon-compliance with the abortion law The case has a new chapter in the High Court of Justice of Madrid. The department of Minister Mónica García has filed an administrative appeal demanding that the high court compel the Community of Madrid to create a registry of physicians who are conscientious objectors to abortion, a list mandated by the 2023 law and used to help plan gynecological services in healthcare centers. "It is proven that the regional administration has not complied with the obligation imposed on it by law. [...] It is also beyond doubt that it has not responded, nor is there any record of it having taken any action, in relation to the request made by the Minister of Health to the Regional Minister of Health," argues the document, to which this publication has had access.

The scandal in the Torrejón de Ardoz Hospital as a result of some audio recordings revealed byThe Country This has provoked profound outrage. In the recordings, the CEO of the private group Ribera Salud—which manages the public hospital under a concession agreement—can be heard giving explicit orders to increase waiting lists by rejecting patients and tests that are not profitable. The case involves alleged malpractice by the Madrid hospital, which may have endangered patients by prioritizing profit over the fundamental right to health. The understandable concerns extend far beyond the hospital's users. Distrust permeates the entire healthcare privatization model implemented decades ago in the Community of Madrid, a model that originated precisely with what the same Ribera group began doing in the Valencian Community in the 1990s. The model is based on concessions to private groups to which the regional government pays a fixed annual fee based on population. In short: the hospital receives the same amount of money regardless of the number of operations or diagnostic tests it performs. The potential problems with this healthcare approach have now become very clear in Torrejón de Ardoz, but the Minister of Health herself, Mónica García, has warned that "it is not an isolated case." It is inevitable to wonder where the original sin lies that has allowed this situation to arise, or if something like this could happen in our country, where the healthcare model is based on a robust public network but also includes an essential role for private entities. The major difference with Madrid lies in the contracting model, in how and with whom this public-private collaboration is structured, and in the guarantees and controls that the administration must exercise to preserve equity and the common good.

The leader of the People's Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, took advantage of Wednesday's scrutiny session with the Spanish government to seek a way out of the impasse that Pedro Sánchez's administration has been placing him in for days, urging him and the party to speak openly about a genocide in Gaza. Although the PP has not commented on whether they believe a genocide is taking place in Gaza, during Wednesday's face-to-face meeting with Spanish President Feijóo, he attempted to move forward by speaking for the first time about a "massacre in Gaza." "Save the lessons in humanity," he rebuked Sánchez, accusing him of making partisan use of the Palestinian cause. "You would even make a pact with Netanyahu to stay in power," Feijóo retorted. However, not everyone within the PP ranks is pulling in the same direction. In fact, the unbalanced stance within the PP has been constant for days.

It was as far back as 2007 when the then Minister of Economy, Antoni Castells, put forward the need to harmonize throughout the State some of the taxes ceded to the autonomous communities, especially inheritance tax, so that there would not be a race to the bottom among all the territories. Castells was heavily criticized at the time because he incurred in an apparent contradiction: a federalist in favor of maximum fiscal sovereignty for Catalonia was demanding that the State set a limit to that sovereignty. However, the Minister pointed out that what made no sense was that a tax ceded so that the autonomous communities could better finance themselves would end up being turned into a weapon, by leaving it practically at zero, but steal tax bases, that is, taxpayers, to other territories. This is what is known as tax dumping, which is practiced on a European scale by countries such as Ireland and Luxembourg, but is particularly practiced within Spain by the Community of Madrid. This phenomenon (and nothing has ever been known about it), and now the PSC is once again championing it, as demonstrated the interview in Salvador Illa published in the ARA this Sunday, which provoked an angry reaction from Isabel Díaz Ayuso and the entire conservative press in general. Castells' reasoning was as follows: the race to the bottom to eliminate inheritance tax does not have a positive effect for everyone, but rather benefits some territories at the expense of others, and ultimately results in lower tax revenue. There is, therefore, not a virtuous circle but a vicious one.

Isabel Díaz Ayuso went to spend two days in a chalet in the Community of Madrid located in the town of Rascafría, in the north of Madrid, with her family two weekends ago, according to reports. The CountryThe Madrid president had always criticized the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, for using "four palaces" that are part of the national heritage and are regularly used by Spanish presidents. This Monday, Ayuso came out to defend herself, asserting that her two days in Rascafría are not comparable to Sánchez's "Falcon, the trips to the Dominican Republic, and the four palaces." In fact, she asserted that at the Madrid chalet, Ayuso brought food from home, went shopping at the Covirán supermarket in the town, and also ate at a restaurant in Rascafría.

Conpymes, of which the Catalan employers' association Pimec is a member, filed an administrative appeal against the Community of Madrid for granting subsidies "by finger-pointing." The complaint has already been admitted for processing by the High Court of Justice of Madrid, according to this organization, chaired by José María Torres.

More than five years later, justice begins to settle accounts for The 7,291 people who died in the Community of Madrid's nursing homes During the pandemic, for the first time, two former senior officials in Isabel Díaz Ayuso's government will have to testify as suspects in a judicial proceeding, according to a statement from two victims' associations. And legal sources confirm this. Throughout this time, the Madrid president has avoided self-criticism regarding her administration's actions during COVID-19.

No curfew, no limitations on meetings in public spaces during the night, no maximum number of people per table in the hospitality industry (only a "recommendation" of four inside and six outdoors) and an extra hour of opening time for bars and restaurants, from 23 h to 00 h. This is how the restrictions will change in the Community of Madrid once the state of alarm is lifted. After her landslide victory in the elections on May 4, the president of Madrid, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, continues with her policy of maintaining minimum restrictions in the Spanish capital. While maintaining the perimeter confinement of different basic health areas - those with an incidence of more than 250 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days - despite not having proven to be effective, Madrid will continue without perimeter confinement as before, with the novelty that Castilla y León and Castilla-La Mancha are not expected to request it. Therefore, for the first time in six months - except for the Christmas break - it will be possible to move freely through neighbouring regions.

It's seven o'clock on a Wednesday evening and Ponzano Street begins to fill up. Located in the heart of Chamberí, it is the Mecca of the popular Madrid tardeo and also the neighbourhood where the Madrilenian president and candidate for re-election, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has grown up. Five fellow master's degree students "celebrate life" -dancing to reggeaton - with a gin and tonic in hand inside one of the bars offering the new craft beer in vogue among old and new PP voters: La Caña de España! Curious onlookers of all kinds enter the place to try it, toast with Ayuso's face on the label and take the bottle home, says the waitress of the bar La Lianta de Ponzano.

Dear friends who live in Madrid, I really hope you don't hurt yourselves, and I am happy to see you cottoning on to what is happening.

With the announcement of his departure from the Spanish government, Pablo Iglesias is killing a few birds with one stone. His leadership within Podemos had long had detractors, he felt personally uncomfortable with his role in the coalition government with Pedro Sanchez's PSOE, who did not seem overly bothered yesterday by his second vice president leaving. On the other hand, Podemos needed a catalyst to avoid losing its distinctiveness due to the not always pleasant task of government in PSOE's shadow. Leaving the government to face Diaz Ayuso in the Community of Madrid gives a patina of effectiveness to a withdrawal that otherwise would looked like a crisis both in the government and the party. Iglesias has managed to turn his step to the side into a heroic, epic goal: to become the red hope to stop the PP's candidate who most unapologetically competes with the far-right Vox, which she will not hesitate to embrace if need be. Thus, Iglesias hopes to obtain a strong position in Madrid as PSOE tries to find its footing after its supposedly discreet manoeuvre of allying with Ciudadanos in Murcia has ended with the latter dislodged and in free fall at the polls (Sánchez, therefore, is left without his longed-for liberal centre partner), Ayuso strengthened as the new star of the right and with Podemos once again in direct competition with the socialists at the polls.

It thus proves right, for the moment, the acting president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who signed the decree of convocation on Wednesday, shortly before the PSOE and Más Madrid registered two no-confidence votes in the Madrid parliament. Ayuso, however, did not inform the Assembly of the convocation once the two motions had already been dealt with and the decree of convocation was not published in the Official Gazette of the Community of Madrid until the following day.

New chapter in the legal mess in which the Community of Madrid is immersed since yesterday is immersed in the Community of Madrid. After the publication this morning of the decree of electoral call for May 4, the Assembly of Madrid has been dissolved. However, the bureau - which yesterday Wednesday admitted ttwo motions of censure presented by the PSOE and Más Madrid - plans to appeal against Isabel Diaz Ayuso's snap election call. It points out that the motions of censure were processed first, leading to an unprecedented clash between the executive and legislative powers in Madrid.

The citizens of Madrid have gone to sleep this Wednesday without knowing whether there is an election called for May 4 to elect a new regional Assembly or whether there will be a motion of censure against president Isabel Diaz Ayuso. The legal rigmarole is so great that it will most likely be the justice system who will have to decide, in scenes which up until now were only accustomed to seeing in Catalonia.