In Sol there are no slow moments. The Madrid Government headquarters radiates electricity 24 hours a day. Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s speeches are based on initiative, attack, taking the lead. The president says something and her enemies get outraged: that is the pattern, the hallmark. She has done it this way all these years and it has not gone badly for her. Ayuso always delivers the first right hook.
Read more The PP and Vox surpass 50% of the vote for the first time amid the Ceuta crisis
However, the penthouse crisis has changed the dynamics. Her team sends messages and initiatives that do not achieve the bounce they generated before July 29, the fateful date when EL PAÍS revealed the existence of the luxury apartment. There is a before and after. The reaction, for now, has been insufficient. Ayuso has gotten tangled up with explanations that have not even convinced the bulk of her followers, until now devoted to her charms as a standard-bearer of the right.
GD3, in a survey published by ABC, reveals that almost 50% of Spaniards believe it was not purchased for administrative use, and highlights that 33% of Popular Party voters do not accept the explanations given by the Madrid government. GD3, hardly suspected of having a left-wing bias, also offers another detail with weight for next year’s elections: a majority of Vox voters, 34%, believe it was not bought exclusively to be converted into a temporary office, as Ayuso claimed at the time. The PP’s effort to take votes away from the far right to secure a second consecutive absolute majority may be harmed by this real estate thriller in which it is involved.
In Sol they are aware and know that this week could be decisive. The president returns to the Madrid Assembly for the debate on the state of the region, where she usually makes a big announcement that marks her political year. Her team, when consulted, implies there will be a bombshell. But this time not just any will do; it must be Titanic-sized to change the course and regain the initiative. The Ceuta crisis complicates things greatly for Pedro Sánchez, but that has not been enough of an umbrella for Ayuso. Her advisors believe that things are tougher in the Mocloa than for them, or at least that’s what they say: “Those who are having a hard time are PSOE and Más Madrid.”
The Madrid PP believes it is time to defend the stronghold and show unity. It is not time to project weakness. Ayuso invited Alberto Núñez Feijóo, her boss and leader of the opposition, on Saturday to the event that marks the kickoff of Madrid’s political activity. Feijóo embraced Ayuso’s entire top team, and although he did not directly praise the president, which he did do for her councilor Carlos Novillo for his work during the fires, he appeared close and affectionate. Génova did not enthusiastically defend Ayuso over the penthouse issue during the summer, but that does not mean there is an internal war as some have spread in political circles. There is no friendly fire, as has been speculated, and if there are cracks they are not visible. At least for now.
It is also true that neither deputies nor right-wing commentators have sacrificed themselves over the issue. Esperanza Aguirre, former president of Madrid and close to Ayuso, has defended that her successor is not to blame for the penthouse purchase, but has called the operation “nonsense” on a Telecinco program. Feijóo himself has said that Planifica Madrid must offer explanations. These are yet to come and that may make September a difficult month for Ayuso. The public company will have to provide information on the requests made through the Transparency Portal and, at the same time, justice may start if court number 8 in Madrid, where the complaints filed with the prosecutor’s office have been assigned, deems it appropriate.
Ayuso’s praetorian guard tries to build a wall. This weekend, PP deputies in the Assembly slept at the hotel in Getafe where the back-to-school event was held. They underwent a team building session. Alfonso Serrano, the secretary general of the Madrid PP, a staunch defender of the president, survivor of a thousand political battles, gave statements after the group therapy. He was all enthusiasm when talking about his party’s chances for the 2027 regional and local elections: “We will not give up governing in any corner of this Community. We will not decide in advance that a certain municipality is difficult, that a certain neighborhood is complicated or that a certain result is not worth trying. Because politics is not won from an office making a list. We will go to all.”
The great mystery continues to be the justificatory file for the purchase by Planifica Madrid. Who ordered the purchase of a luxury property that has no specific use for a government? Why was that one chosen and not another? Did the technicians know it could not function as an office? Did the order come from Ayuso? The supposed report, kept under lock and key for now, should answer all these questions, at least in theory. The lack of clear explanations means this controversy remains alive naturally, although those around Ayuso believe it is artificially fueled.
The Madrid Government denies a recurring suspicion of its adversaries: the penthouse was going to be announced at some point as the official residence of the president. They were just waiting for the best moment to make it public. Ayuso denies it, but at the same time defends herself by pointing out that ministers or other regional presidents have a house paid for by taxpayers. Isn’t that contradictory? The confusion for everyone is total.
For her circle, the media and the opposition “stretch the gum.” They joke that every day new data related to the penthouse appears that is of no major interest, and there is some truth in that. Minor details are published to feed the fire on social networks and the last hours, in an endless process of infoxication. A pyre that burns day and night. But it is the same game that today’s politics has at hand, sometimes in favor and other times against. Ayuso and her people, especially Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, her main advisor, were used to dominating the narrative, placing at the center of the debate the topics that interested them. The penthouse, however, now puts them on the defensive. This crisis will measure what they are made of.
