-Where is MAR?
The one who asks that question is a PP politician who is not among the supporters of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of Madrid, nor of the man who answers to that acronym, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, her powerful chief of staff. The reason for their concern is the series of stumbles by the baroness that wear down the entire Madrid PP, and offer an unexpected opportunity to the opposition with only months left until the spring 2027 elections. First was the dismissal of the Education counselor, Emilio Viciana, in February: in solidarity, several members of the group known as Los Pocholos resigned as deputies and officials. Then came a trip to Mexico from which Ayuso returned early, clashing with local authorities. And now a crisis has exploded that the regional government has failed to close, centered on the purchase of a penthouse worth more than six million in Chamberí by a public company (Planifica Madrid) that no one has managed to explain. These are the kinds of fires that Ayuso and MAR used to dilute by shifting the focus to the national stage. Until now.
“Ayuso’s latest stumbles are giving the opposition something that until now had been very hard to achieve: their own ground for confrontation,” says analyst Jordi Sarrión-Carbonell about Ayuso’s ability to confront national politics and rise above the regional problems that concern her, except for the thousands of deaths recorded in Madrid nursing homes during the pandemic. “Ayuso has been very effective at turning her crises into a battle against Sánchez, but the penthouse changes the scenario because it forces discussion of an issue that directly affects her management and is much harder to displace,” he adds. And he concludes: “The challenge for the opposition will be to turn the slip-ups into a coherent political narrative and not just accumulate headlines. For the first time in a long time, they may succeed in making the crisis about Ayuso, not Sánchez.”
Ayuso and her advisor, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, specialize in reformulating any crisis to move it to the national level. When the controversy arose because the president’s brother had received a commission from a company for providing masks for a contract with the Community, the PP leader, Pablo Casado, ended up stepping in. When it became known that the leader’s partner was investigated for alleged tax fraud, the Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, convicted of a crime of revealing secrets, resigned. And when the penthouse crisis broke, revealed by this newspaper, the PP again tried the same formula: pointing, for example, to the official residences of ministers.
However, so far that twist has not yielded the desired results. The controversy remains in the area that most discomforts the president: her own management and responsibility. Not even the Ceuta crisis has given her a break. Months before the elections, the opposition believes that current events offer an unexpected opportunity. And they will do everything possible to keep it alive until September, when the return of parliamentary activity and the debate on the state of the region threaten to become a via crucis for the president.
“In September we will demand explanations and political responsibilities for everything that has happened,” they explain at Más Madrid, where Minister Mónica García has been especially active these days in the penthouse controversy. “The failed purchase of the penthouse is another turning point and reveals something else: that impunity is running out within her own ranks and fewer and fewer acolytes laugh at her jokes,” they continue. “We already saw cracks in the Madrid PP ranks with the dismissal of the Education counselor and the clan war against Los Pocholos, and everything points to seeing more of this to hold someone accountable for the unforced errors of recent weeks,” they add, in veiled reference to Miguel Ángel García Martín, counselor of Presidency and head of Planifica Madrid. “We have before us a government that does not govern, and a president who is more concerned with solving her economic, housing, and personal matters than governing and solving the problems of Madrilenians.”
The PSOE expresses itself even more harshly. “If he had decency, he should resign,” they say in the party to amplify the message of their regional leader and minister of the Spanish government, Óscar López. “Since he will not, it will be justice and votes that stop this president who confuses the public with the private, who believes that the Community of Madrid is a tool at her personal service, while Madrilenians have difficulties accessing housing, a medical specialist, or enrolling in public university.”
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The controversy also opens an unexpected opportunity for Vox, which was opposing Ayuso around the housing crisis and now finds that a luxury penthouse dominates the news. In the PP, in any case, they are more than calm, and see no string of failures.
2027 Candidacy
“In the party leadership, among mayors, or deputies, there is a mix of laughter and indignation,” says a collaborator of the president. “Ayuso has been persecuted. Now they have been showing plans (on television) of her house,” he complains. “This whole penthouse issue is absurd. It was never going to be her residence. That’s why the national leadership is freaking out. And they are also outraged,” he assures. “It’s not that people forgive Ayuso everything, it’s that people are much smarter than some want. She is now focused on what remains of the legislature, finishing projects, recovering from the fires, and the debate on the state of the region. Not bad. Not at all,” he defends. “No way,” he emphasizes. “She is strong and eager.”
The thing is, there are many Madrilenian PPs. The most important part, that of the senior officials who owe everything to the president, supports her firmly or keeps prudent silence awaiting the next move of Ayuso and MAR. But in a minority sector, which gathers those harmed by the leader’s rise, or those who long for another style, other ways, and another type of commitment to the party, the scenes of Los Pocholos, Mexico, and the penthouse cause astonishment.
“The penthouse is an atomic trap. The chats are on fire. What a shame! Her credibility has hit rock bottom: there are many lies,” sums up a source respected by their party colleagues. “She does not control her party nor her government,” he continues. And he says goodbye: “The question is not whether she will be able to govern in 2027, it is whether she will be the candidate.”
In Ayuso’s environment, that hypothesis is flatly ruled out. No one today questions that she will be the PP candidate in 2027.
