Ayuso stands up the rectors at the start of the academic year and thus avoids a university protest

Isabel Díaz Ayuso will not preside this Wednesday, as she does every year, the official opening of the 2026/2027 academic year to be held at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM). Her presence was not in doubt because the date fits the agenda of the Madrid president, but late Tuesday the event was dropped from her plan for the following day. In this way, Ayuso avoids crossing paths with the platform for the public University, which has called a gathering at the door of the UAM Multipurpose Building where the ceremony will take place. “Let’s not let her feel unpunished, because those who sell the public University are not welcome in it. Join us,” read a sign. The protest, supported by the main unions, continues despite the no-show.

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Ayuso presides this morning, as every Wednesday, the Government Council of the Community of Madrid. And this afternoon she will attend a tribute to nurses organized by the newspaper La Razón. This newspaper has not been able to obtain an explanation from the Ministry of Education for the reasons of her no-show. Sources from the UAM state that they do not know the cause of her absence.

Since Tuesday morning there was a rumor that the president would not attend the event. This newspaper asked the UAM Communication service who assured they had no news. However, hours passed and the official ceremony invitation email for the press ― accreditation is required ― did not arrive. It finally did in the mid-afternoon, but the email did not mention Ayuso’s attendance, only the name of the professor who will give the inaugural lecture. EL PAÍS asked UAM Communication again: it would be the Government of the Community of Madrid who would issue its own invitation.

Finally, late Tuesday, the Community of Madrid posted the agenda of the president and her team and it was confirmed that Ayuso had dropped out of this solemn event attended by all the rectors of Madrid.

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Mercedes Zarzalejos, Education Minister, will attend the UAM, the most mobilized university, after Complutense, due to the financial suffocation of the six public campuses in the region.

Last March, Ayuso signed an agreement with the rectors that ended two years of public protests over their financial situation. The pact was heavily promoted, but the campuses continue to suffer. Although the mobilization climate of last academic year is no longer present.

The successful two-day strike in November 2025 led Ayuso to seek the agreement with the rectors and was one of the reasons that caused the departure of the Ministry of Education of Los Pocholos. Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, her chief of staff, took care to ease the situation. A university in the streets is a difficult hornet’s nest to control on the eve of elections.

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