David Fernández has written the first non-hagiographic book about Isabel Díaz Ayuso. Methodical, tireless, one of those reporters who stay on the phone in the newsroom until dawn, he has interviewed more than 180 people over four years to try to understand how a graduate in Information Sciences, underestimated by her colleagues in the PP, has managed to become the most powerful symbol of the right in Spain. The author may have plunged into the deep waters of the greatest enigma in current politics. David Fernández (Madrid, 1975) outlines a shrewd woman who has crushed all the enemies she has encountered along the way. And also someone who has turned into a superpower the ability not to hesitate and to dare with any matter, known or not, that borders on recklessness and leaves her on the edge of caricature. The author appears this morning in a café with his beard and gray hair, and a three-quarter coat. Under his arm he carries Ayuso, from the publisher Libros del K.O, which will be on sale from April 20. Anyone who has noticed will have realized that a journalist has entered through the door.
Question. The book starts with an anecdote about Ayuso at an event at the bar association. Why did you choose that one?
Answer. It reveals many things. She arrived and at the door there was a coat rack with some robes. She saw people putting them on and she did the same. A lawyer sarcastically told her he didn’t know she was a lawyer.
Q. You wanted the book to be called Skynet, like the software that rebels against humans in Terminator.
A. That’s what Pablo Casado’s people call her (the former PP secretary general dismissed after a showdown with Ayuso). The publisher thought it was too cinephile, too contrived a title. But it fits very well. Casado chose Ayuso, who was a very secondary figure in the PP, as a candidate after testing many people. He thought Isabel would be loyal and the opposite happened. Like Skynet, she learned on her own as she governed, and ended up killing her creators.
Q. You feel there is a before and after with the arrival of Miguel Ángel Rodríguez as chief advisor.
A. She knew her colleagues mocked her, especially within Ciudadanos (the party with which she co-governed in her first term). The ayusadas, they said every time she messed up. And Ciudadanos made the fatal mistake of underestimating her. She needed someone to structure her message and she knew Miguel Ángel well. He comes from two heart attacks, was retiring and thought ‘this is my chance’. He saw it was his moment. He’s very cunning.
Q. You say Florentino Pérez wanted to take him to Real Madrid to lead the Super League project.
A. He didn’t accept because he thinks Ayuso has a lot of future and can reach higher goals. Miguel Ángel has made her believe she is the great stateswoman of the 21st century. She believes she will save Spain.
Q. Will she become president of the Government?
A. In this country you never know.
Q. You think Ayuso and her team are the All-Seeing Eye.
A. No doubt. Look, I went to a bar under her house, which she and her boyfriend (Alberto González Amador, charged with two tax crimes) had scoped out. You reported that in EL PAÍS. I entered the bar without identifying myself to ask about the former owners. Nothing more. The next day someone from her team called and asked what I was doing there. I hadn’t entered her building, I had only passed by the sidewalk. I never said who I was. How did they know? I suspect the police photograph everyone who enters the café and pass the photos to them.
Q. Ayuso has survived four major crises that could have ended anyone’s career.
A. She has the favor of the media and economic power. And like any politician, the day she stops having them she will fall. That’s why in the book I talk about Cristina Cifuentes (the previous elected president, also from the PP). This is very volatile. Eduardo Inda (director of Okdiario) said Cifuentes was great when he pumped her full of publicity, and when they told him Cifuentes had to fall, well, she was a thief. The day all these media like The Objective, El Debate and Okdiario lose interest, that Ayuso is no longer God, what happened to Cifuentes will happen to her.
Q. You say Cifuentes is convinced they ended her because she opposed Grupo Planeta having a university and for not releasing payments to Grupo Quirón because she found them suspicious (González Amador maintains links to this business conglomerate).
A. She believes that and tells everyone, it’s no secret. What did Ayuso do as soon as she arrived? Give the license to the university and pay Quirón. She’s very smart, very shrewd.
Read more Ground drones drive Ukraine towards robotic infantry
Q. She achieved something historic, that a general prosecutor was convicted and had to resign.
A. That gives an idea of how far she is capable of going.
Q. If Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the leader of the PP, ousted Pedro Sánchez from the presidency of the Government next year, what room for maneuver would Ayuso have?
A. Feijóo would touch power and handle institutional advertising. Now the media belong to Ayuso, but that could change.
Q. I see him disillusioned with journalism.
A. Yes. And with politics, the biggest mistake of my life is having worked with politicians. Some are saved, but most are there to have a salary, not to improve people’s lives. I was in the Madrid PP and that was an absolute disappointment.
Q. Is it true that you were involved in the alleged spy plot that pitted Ayuso against Pablo Casado?
A. Due to health problems, and because they doubled my salary, I left El Confidencial and joined the Madrid City Council, even though I am progressive and have never been close to the PP. They made me press chief of the EMVS (Municipal Housing and Land Company). It was a horrible experience. María del Mar Blanco was placed there with a huge salary, and on her first day she said she had no idea about urban planning and was there to learn. That was the level. And suddenly, the espionage case arrived.
Q. A spy, Julio Gutiez, claimed that someone from Casado’s circle and the City Council had asked him for bank statements proving that Ayuso’s brother received a commission for selling masks during the pandemic (true information, but that had to be verified).
A. And that man said that person had introduced himself as the press chief of the EMVS. That is, me.
Q. And what repercussions did it have?
A. Esteban Urreiztieta, from El Mundo, called me to say he had proof that I was the mastermind of that plot. Something ridiculous, laughable. I told him okay, but show me the proof. He couldn’t have it, it was totally false. He published it without naming me, but he did mention the position. I resigned, didn’t ask for severance. I preferred to go unemployed. I didn’t want to work anymore with petty criminals and I don’t want to know anything more about politics in my life.
Q. Let’s go back to pure and hard journalism.
A. Now only SEO matters and seeing if Google measures this or that. Now what matters is making many pieces. That’s no longer for me. I’m 50, not 27. I would like to do more thoughtful journalism.
Q. Journalists obsess over their stories, there is a constant tension between that and taking distance. How did you manage that boundary?
A. I talk about her because she is a great character and her career is worthy of being told. And I know the Madrid PP very well from the inside. I have nothing personal against Ayuso. I hope she does well and reaches wherever she has to go.
Q. Will you keep following her?
A. No, she’s finished for me. No more.
‘Ayuso: Stumbles, Intrigues, and Vendettas in the Court of Madrid’
Editorial Libros del K.O.
Price: €23.90.
Check here an excerpt from the book:
