The host of the institutional event for the big day of the Community of Madrid, the Dos de Mayo festival, was on this occasion the illusionist Jorge Blas. And among the presenter’s magic tricks that surprised the authorities and guests seated in the Royal House of the Post Office this Saturday was a puzzle whose pieces represented different values of the idiosyncrasy of the people of Madrid. “Freedom” stood out as the main spring among them all.
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Because “freedom” was the most repeated word in the institutional act that commemorates the uprising of the people of Madrid against Napoleon’s French troops. The regional baroness of the PP who carries as her main banner her concept of “freedom,” Isabel Díaz Ayuso, entered the building at Puerta del Sol shortly after 11 a.m., wearing a red sleeveless dress, greeted the authorities in the front row, and stopped especially at the head of her party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, whom she hugged for a long time.
The event was again marked by the clash between the central and regional administrations. For the second consecutive year, there was no military parade after the Ministry of Defense decided in 2025 to withdraw the Armed Forces, arguing that it is a civilian event. In response to that order and what they consider a continuous “boycott” by La Moncloa against the Community, the regional government did not invite any representative of the central government, also for the second year in a row.
“While we wait for the Army to return to its square, to this Puerta del Sol that misses it so much and whose echo resonates throughout Spain, we celebrate that our other legion, the people of Madrid, is represented by the historical reenactment we are about to witness,” Ayuso said about the absence of the Armed Forces during her speech. “Madrid society is another army that, without commanders or ranks, walks united, especially if tested and has to respond in defense of its freedom. I tell you in advance that it will not let itself be controlled by anything or anyone. Whoever tries will again find a dignified and resounding response,” added the president of the Community, in a veiled message to her arch-antagonist, Pedro Sánchez, and the open war she maintains with the president. “It is a government that since the pandemic decided that Madrid had to be finished off,” asserted Ayuso’s number two, Alfonso Serrano, who went as far as to call Sánchez a “cancer” for the country.
The ceremony ended with the performance of singer Paloma San Basilio singing her iconic song Juntos, which in its lyrics has phrases like Together, love for two, love in good company. Ayuso and Feijóo, sitting side by side, hummed the song cheerfully. The Madrid baroness, a free verse within the PP, did not deviate from the script this Saturday and, beyond the few messages to Sánchez, did not mark her own profile against the leader of the Popular Party or other regional presidents of her party.
Ayuso delivered a very institutional speech, without much political charge, mainly focused on recognizing the work of those awarded the special mention of the Crosses of the Order of Dos de Mayo and praising Madrid. Among other aspects, she highlighted that the Community “naturally counts on the whole nation, with its unity, with those societies that yearn to be free and with all the people who stand up to terror and arbitrary impositions” and come to the region “choosing freedom and prosperity.” A land that lives its “best moment, among other things, because neither nationalism nor identity ideologies” make its residents “waste time.”
Among the recipients of the Crosses of the Order of Dos de Mayo this year was La Vuelta cycling race. An award that the sporting competition receives after the last stage in the capital was suspended due to pro-Palestinian protests for allowing the participation of the Israel-Premier Tech team, while the Netanyahu government’s siege on Gaza continues. “The people of Madrid were waiting to receive the cyclists in the last stage; but as everyone knows, it was boycotted,” recalled Ayuso, who in her struggle with Sánchez sides with Israel. “Neither the athletes nor the organizers deserved such an ending. Nor did the capital of Spain before the eyes of the world. That is why La Vuelta is honored today as it should be, in the name of cycling lovers and the values of sport, and the people of Madrid, always so hospitable,” the president concluded.
Before the words of the popular leader, various political representatives spoke, as is tradition, before the media. Among them was the Vox spokesperson in the Assembly, Isabel Pérez Moñino, who recalled that next Thursday they will bring a vote on the “national priority” to the regional chamber. “We, against the Madrid of all accents, defend a Madrid where the Madrid of national priority is established,” emphasized the ultra regional deputy. The president of the Community, who has already positioned herself against this principle that prioritizes immigrants over Spaniards in access to public aid and benefits, also wanted to set her stance from the podium and during her speech. “Madrid is a land of welcome, open to currents, respectful of ideological plurality,” Ayuso indicated along those lines. “It is also a land of faith and traditions,” she added.
Ayuso will not be present at the debate next Thursday in the Assembly because she is leaving this Sunday on an institutional trip to Mexico, where she will participate in a tribute to Hernán Cortés after having described the North American country as a narco-state and its president, Claudia Sheinbaum, as an ultra-left dictator. “The tribute to Hernán Cortés is a provocation in every way at a time when Mexico is demanding from Spain recognition of abuses,” criticized the spokesperson of Más Madrid, Manuela Bergerot. She and Rita Maestre, leader of the formation in the City Council, attended the event at the Royal House of the Post Office after a week marked by the open war between the Minister of Health, Mónica García, and the regional deputy Emilio Delgado in their fight to lead the candidacy for next year’s elections.
The spokesperson of the PSOE in the Assembly, Mar Espinar, also attended the event, although she did not take the microphone to appear before the press, while in parallel the PSOE held its own event. On social media, the Government delegate, Francisco Martín, who was banned from the event, expressed himself. “Their partisan appropriation of institutions is a blatant scandal, in which they invest almost as much effort as in making quick profits by weakening public services,” criticized Martín.
Feijóo did speak before the media. “1808 [year of the Dos de Mayo uprising] is the representation of the popular revolution based on the yearning of the people of Madrid for freedom, for their independence, for their identity, and for their sovereignty. Probably that cry is present in the Madrid DNA,” said the PP leader. “Madrid does not need stumbling blocks; what it needs is support,” he added as a jab at Sánchez and the central government.
Besides La Vuelta Ciclista, among the other awardees of the Grand Crosses of the Order of Dos de Mayo were also the president of ONCE, Miguel Carballeda; the businessman and president of Atlético de Madrid, Enrique Cerezo; and the group known as the 12 of Parla, a group of students aged 15 to 16 who during a study trip to Ireland jumped into the water to save a woman who was drowning in the sea. “Our age does not limit us. Together we can do everything,” proclaimed Ainhoa Holguín on behalf of the group.
Ayuso held them up as an example of youth to assert herself again. “What future are we going to give this youth if their problems are not talked about and everything is politicized so that every response passes through the filter of ideology?” asked the president of the Community as a nod to the cultural battle. “There is so much good and beautiful to tell them about life, about the opportunity to grow in a place like Madrid, that we can only tell them that we will not fail them.”