―Do you prefer rancheras or chotis? ―the Minister of Health, Mónica García, has been asked.
“I prefer chotis and we miss Mrs. Ayuso here. We understand that she is more of a Cancún person than Madrid,” García (Más Madrid) replied at the San Isidro meadow, packed this Friday. The feast of Madrid’s patron saint was marked by the hangover from the controversial trip of the Community president to Mexico, where she defended the Spanish Conquest and which ended abruptly due to, Isabel Díaz Ayuso and her team claim, alleged pressures, threats, and risks to her safety.
Councilors from the City Council, assembly deputies, and ministers have paraded through the meadow and attended the media. The reproaches to the Madrid president dominated every intervention: embarrassment, ridicule, or circus are some of the terms her political opponents have used. “We will surely hear some chotis and not rancheras, although Mrs. Ayuso would have liked that this year […] it has been the May of ridicule,” joked Óscar López, Minister of Digital Transformation and Public Function.
The president defended her tour across the Atlantic in the assembly this Thursday, which upset Mexicans and confronted her with Claudia Sheinbaum. “Mexico did not exist until the Spaniards arrived,” she said amid incredulous looks from the opposition. The regional leader of Más Madrid, Manuela Bergerot, took advantage of the festivity to respond. “The indigenous peoples existed before Hernán Cortés arrived, just as ignorance existed before Ayuso opened her mouth,” she commented, supported by García and the municipal spokesperson of her party, Rita Maestre. To one side and away from the microphones was Emilio Delgado. He and the still Minister of Health are negotiating a joint agreement ahead of the party primaries to avoid a total fracture in the Madrid formation.
Ayuso did not attend the meadow, but she did attend the capital’s honor medal ceremony, one of which was precisely awarded to the president of the Casa México Foundation in Madrid, Valentín Díez Morodo. In his speech, Morodo thanked the mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, for the recognition and did not directly refer to Ayuso. He did say the following: “We have worked to build bridges between our societies, with leaders committed to an increasingly close relationship between Mexico and Spain.” The decision on who would be awarded was made months ago, before the political and international earthquake caused by the trip. Even so, the scene was, at least, ironic: the Madrid president among the audience, in the front row, low profile, and Morodo on stage praising the “heartfelt relationship” between both countries.
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Mariano Barbacid, founder and researcher at the National Cancer Research Center (CNIO), also received an honor medal amid a reputational crisis for raising funds from donors long after his pancreatic cancer study ―whose results he magnified in the media― was withdrawn. “We cannot allow noise to replace knowledge,” he said after receiving the medal. The third recognition, this one without a halo of controversy, was for the Guillén Cuervo family saga for their contribution to performing arts and Spanish culture.
The political back-and-forth, although present at the meadow and other events, did not seem to interest those who encountered deputies and councilors surrounded by cameras and microphones.
―Who is she, is she famous?
―She is Reyes Maroto, the PSOE candidate for mayor.
―Is that Rita?
―No, that is the one from Vox [referring to Isabel Pérez Moñino, spokesperson of the far-right party in the assembly].
―Ah, then I’m leaving.
The one they did recognize as soon as he arrived was Almeida. Families from the Amadeo Vives school, in Aluche, followed the mayor shouting: “Don’t take away our playground!” The City Council is going to build a senior residence in that neighborhood of the Carabanchel district ―something neighbors have been demanding for years― but it will be built on the school playground. There were tense moments. A crowd surrounded Almeida and other members of the municipal corporation, who in turn walked quickly to get away from the shouts and the throng. The tension eased with the mayor’s arrival at the area where the traditional mass was held, led by the Archbishop of Madrid, José Cobo Cano. During the ceremony, several members of the tenants’ union raised a banner in protest against real estate speculation. In the previous days, several artists also made proclamations about housing and criticized Almeida and Ayuso during their concerts. Citizens and tourists, oblivious to the political reproaches, continued filling the hills of the San Isidro meadow.
