Ayuso now acknowledges that she is in favor of an official residence for the presidents of Madrid: “I think it’s fine”

The long-awaited face-to-face of Isabel Díaz Ayuso with the opposition after the summer did not disappoint. PSOE and Más Madrid raised the tone to the maximum this Friday against the president over the mysterious purchase of the luxury penthouse, making it clear that this will be the issue around which anti-Ayusism will revolve in the coming months. The president’s reaction in the debate on the state of the region was also high voltage. The timid Ayuso of recent weeks, entangled in the real estate thriller, was nowhere to be seen.

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In fact, she went on the attack. Although in these more than 40 days of crisis she has insisted that that home was not going to become an official residence, she defended that the presidents of Madrid should have one. “I would find it fine,” she said. Instead of dodging the issue as some thought she would, she fully engaged with it and did not hide it. It was a clear change of strategy by her team. The tactic of not talking about that real estate operation, about which many doubts still hover, has failed and with this sudden turn she wants to eradicate any obscurity. Her speech yesterday lasted a little over two hours and today she used the 90 minutes of reply to Más Madrid, PSOE, and Vox. Ayuso in extenso.

This time she improvised most of the time. She barely reviewed the papers on the lectern. If Ceuta was the main topic yesterday, now it was diluted. The political controversy moved to the penthouse, the main battleground of her adversaries. To defend herself, she listed the socialist public officials who have official residences, such as Pedro Sánchez himself, the president of Catalonia, and the ministers with the most relevant portfolios. The insistence on this argument is surprising, since Ayuso had until now assured that that property in Chamberí, bought through a high standing real estate agency, was only going to be used as a “temporary office” while her current office was being remodeled. That thesis seems to have been buried.

Ayuso was especially fierce with the left-wing opposition spokespeople, Manuela Bergerot and Mar Espinar. The argument seemed very well studied: she reminded them that neither of them will be the candidate in the 2027 elections. She referred several times to “their bosses” to belittle them. (Más Madrid will compete against Ayuso with Minister Mónica García and the socialists with Minister Óscar López). She reproached them for not mentioning the 100 measures she has announced and accused them of “throwing gasoline.” She dedicated the end exclusively to the two: “I tell you not only that this is the last investiture debate of this legislature: this is the last debate of your careers,” she said. And she finished with the phrase she coined during the summer: “chao, pescao. We won’t see you here again.”

Before, for an hour and a half, she was heavily attacked. The first to take the floor was Manuela Bergerot, spokesperson for Más Madrid. “You have earned the respect of the Madrid elite, but not of the Madrilenians,” she told her. “Mrs. Ayuso, if you care about Ceuta, be supportive of Ceuta. Lend a hand and say, today, that Madrid will host all the children, girls, and asylum seekers needed so that Ceuta does not make this effort alone.” She received applause from her side and boos from the PP bench.

Bergerot questioned the discrepancy between versions of the penthouse purchase. “Tell me, which version did you wake up with today? Did you end up sleeping there? Madam President, say where the Planifica Madrid papers are or we will think they are being fabricated while we talk,” she asked. The spokesperson reproached her for boasting about transparency yesterday when “in two and a half hours of speech she did not even dare to mention the scandal.” “Publish the papers, if there is nothing to hide they will surely prove you right. Be brave, declassify the penthouse papers,” she challenged her.

Ayuso did not look at Bergerot, nor did she do so later with Espinar. She wrote or pretended to write on a paper. Bergerot decided to address the Popular Party deputies. “Does no one feel ashamed on the Popular Party bench? Does no one feel a little used? Mrs. Ayuso, do not hide behind Planifica Madrid, do not hide behind the Presidency counselor. Face up.” She also directly referred to the counselor, Miguel Ángel García Martín: “Do not sacrifice yourself for your boss, she will not thank you. Spill the beans.”

Más Madrid did not come empty-handed and brought some proposals. Bergerot announced the attempt to pass a new tax law that they will present next week. “A comprehensive tax reform whose main objective is to tax large inheritances and large fortunes to limit the power of the 1% and put Madrid’s wealth at the service of Madrid’s needs,” she explained. “And yes, we must fight wealth concentration and idle capital.”

“Mrs. Ayuso, I don’t know if you thought you could earn the respect of the Madrid elite by buying a luxury home with other people’s money, but you have lost the respect of the Madrid people forever,” she assured. Before finishing, Bergerot wanted to give the president another warning: “Look closely at your deputies: those who applaud you the most are the ones who talk the most to the press.”

The lectern was empty for a few moments and was taken by Mar Espinar, PSOE spokesperson, because the president preferred to give a single response at the end of all opposition appearances. Espinar began without beating around the bush: “Seven years doing and undoing as you pleased with the money of all Madrilenians and when you are about to put the cherry on the cake with the penthouse of your dreams, they catch you. It’s not right.” If yesterday Ayuso described in detail the property that Catalonia wanted to buy in Madrid, today it was Espinar who recalled the conditions of that property bought by the Community of Madrid: 500 square meters, more than 100 of terrace, five bedrooms, five bathrooms, and “in front of your mother’s house.”

The socialist spokesperson brought up data on healthcare (waiting lists, delays for mammograms, invoices from the Quirón Group), education (the preschool strike, heat in classrooms, underfunding of universities), lack of fire prevention, the “failure” of the Vive Plan, the refusal to create the registry of abortion objector doctors, but all topics led to the penthouse. “If you wanted an official residence you should have said so and followed legal channels,” she told her.

Although there is no evidence of it, Espinar intoned a requiem for Ayuso in politics: “We caught her. The penthouse is a before and after. The free ride and political career are over. This is your last debate on the State of the region. Do yourself a favor and resign.” She also launched a series of questions that, together, shape the mystery surrounding the Planifica Madrid operation: “Where is the file? And the economic-financial report or the corresponding feasibility analysis? Do you plan to dismiss the Planifica Madrid leadership?”

The end was for Isabel Pérez Moñino, Vox spokesperson, who started by extending a hand to Ayuso, but then withdrew it. “One thing is that Madrid’s figures are doing well” —she spoke of growth in investments, employment, revenue, and new projects— “and quite another is that Madrilenians are doing well.” Her speech was peppered with references to immigrants: “Does anyone here believe that bringing 200,000 foreigners per year to Madrid has no consequences on housing?”; and later: “Do you think bringing each year to Madrid a number of foreigners equivalent to the entire city of Almería has no consequences on transport?”

Moñino showed the toughest face against immigration. “Vox is linking immigration with insecurity. Well indeed,” she did not hide. “We link open borders with insecurity because it’s the damn truth. And if not, go to a bar or a square in Vallecas, Carabanchel, or Parla and ask who is the author of the last neighborhood robbery, who is the author of the last attack on a girl, who pulled the lady’s bag, or who gave the last beating to a kid. Enough pretending that reality is not what it is.”

And she said bluntly: “Invaders, illegals, minors, adults, and adults pretending to be minors, out. Neither in Ceuta, nor in Madrid nor in Spain. Whether they entered through the border, in a small boat or through the Barajas loophole as fake tourists, out. Not all accents or anything.”

The term national priority came to light almost at the end of the Vox leader’s speech. She mentioned it with great emphasis: “Priority for Spaniards in access to protected housing. Priority for Spaniards in social aid. Priority for those who have worked, contributed, and supported our public services. Priority for our youth, our elderly, and our families.” Moñino was clear about her speech and what she came for. She did not move an inch from it.

The feeling is that Ayuso has known how to face the state of the debate on the region. She arrived very shaken by a very eventful summer. The opposition had everything in its favor: never before had the Madrid government responded so erratically to a controversy. When EL PAÍS uncovered that her government bought that luxury house for her to use, her answers had not convinced, not even PP voters. Nor some members of her party. She seemed cornered and very low in spirits. Instead, she appeared energetic and on the offensive. Most of the deputies from Génova in the Assembly also conveyed the feeling that here, in this forum, she feels very supported. Ayuso has saved a match ball.

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