Ayuso replaces the Education Minister amid controversy over university underfunding

BarcelonaThe president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, appointed a new Minister of Education, Science, and Universities on Monday, replacing Emilio Viciana, who had held the position since 2023. The new minister will be Mercedes Zarzalejo, a member of parliament from the People's Party. This change—the first of the current term under Díaz Ayuso's government—comes amidst ongoing negotiations and the processing of the regional university law and the... Controversy over the underfunding of public universitiesAccording to information confirmed to EFE by Madrid government sources, the change in the Education Ministry is motivated by a need for change and the implementation of a university model that, in Ayuso's opinion, the now former Education Minister failed to lead. Specifically, the Madrid president had tasked Viciana "more than two years ago" with "a program to support, strengthen, and modernize Madrid's universities," which she did not see fulfilled. Therefore, she "has decided to give new impetus" to the Ministry with the appointment of Zarzalejo. The same sources state that the new minister has taken on the same mandate and will have to "carry out this ambitious university project." The Madrid government avoids placing the Law on Higher Education, Universities, and Science (LESUC) at the center of this project, defining it as "just another tool that the minister started working on, but which also failed to bear fruit."

In any case, the Lesuc (Law on University Universities) has represented, for months now—without even having progressed beyond the draft stage—an open war between the Community of Madrid and Madrid's public universities (Complutense, Autónoma, Rey Juan Carlos, Politécnica, Carlos III, and Alcalá), which mobilized against a law that, they denounce, "perpetuates" university autonomy. Specifically, the rectors of the public universities argue that the budget proposal planned by the Community of Madrid government is completely insufficient. Although it would include a 6.5% increase—some 75 million euros more than this year—according to calculations by university platforms, the budget for public universities will only increase from 0.44% of the regional GDP to 0.46%, far from the 1% they are demanding. Interrogation in Begoña Gómez

Beyond the controversy in the university sphere, Viciana's time as Minister of Education has been marked by a firm commitment to split school days, restrictions on screen use in classrooms, and the incorporation of the first two years of ESO (Compulsory Secondary Education) into numerous Infant and Primary schools. As for the new Minister, Mercedes Zarzalejo, she began the legislative term as a PP (People's Party) deputy in the Madrid Assembly and was responsible for questioning Begoña Gómez in the commission investigating her professorship at the Complutense University. In October 2025, she had been appointed Deputy Minister of Universities, Research, and Science.