The first time Génova spoke about the purchase of the luxury penthouse by the Madrid Executive of Isabel Díaz Ayuso was on Thursday, July 30, a day after EL PAÍS revealed its acquisition. It was at the national headquarters of the PP, in a press conference by Miguel Tellado. “I refer to the explanations given by the Government of the Community,” replied the secretary general of the Popular Party. The appearance ended and, barely an hour later, Ayuso’s cabinet announced a drastic plot twist that raised even more doubts about the final use of the apartment: they would sell the property and allocate the money to those affected by the fires, they said. Tellado had faced the issue, although somewhat evasively, to address the controversy when in Sol the story grew much larger in a very short time. Ten days later, the official version of Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s team remains the same: to refer to the words of the Madrid baroness despite the fact that, every day, the tangle becomes more complicated with new compromising information. “There is a feeling of unnecessary discomfort,” summarizes a national parliamentarian. “An unnecessary mess,” he adds.
On Monday, four days after Tellado’s press conference, the week started hot for the PP. To the succession of news around the 485 square meter apartment was added the interview of the media-popular deputy Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo in this newspaper. “I still haven’t understood Ayuso and the penthouse,” expressed the PP’s deputy spokesperson in Congress, generating a huge stir, when it was also known that Ayuso’s partner had put up for sale the other penthouse where they had lived in Chamberí, bought after allegedly committing tax fraud. That day, Génova did not comment on the intrigue because, in its routine Monday appearance, Tellado was not asked about the issue and this newspaper requested to speak to address the matter, but was not granted.
Since then, the various spokespeople who have attended the media daily have done so outside Madrid. On Thursday, Elías Bendodo spoke from Málaga. “I have nothing more to add to the words of President Ayuso. I think she is perfectly understood,” concluded the Deputy Secretary of Autonomous and Municipal Policy. And this Friday, the last public statement by Génova, Alma Ezcurra spoke from León. “We have all expressed it. The President of the Community of Madrid has given the appropriate explanations. If someone considers that the explanations are not sufficient, what they have to do is go to the legal mechanisms to request the information they consider appropriate,” emphasized the Deputy Secretary of Sectoral Coordination the same day the PSOE later announced it will denounce the purchase of the penthouse for 6.3 million euros in court.
That is Génova’s official position, to refer to the supposed “explanations” of Ayuso — who has neither published the purchase file of the apartment nor clarified the turn taken after the covert operation was revealed — after Feijóo’s team was consulted by this newspaper to give its official position. To the brief responses of its spokespeople, deflecting all responsibility to Ayuso and without a full-throated defense of the President of the Community of Madrid, is added the silence on social networks. Hardly any member of the steering committee or other senior officials outside the Madrid PP have raised their voice on X to justify the purchase of the penthouse, as has happened on other occasions when the President of the Community, a free verse among the barons and in the PP, has been involved in another controversy. “It’s not our issue,” says a member of the steering committee. “We are busy with Ceuta,” argues another national parliamentarian.
The Madrid PP: “We are offside”
Among the Madrid PP deputies, the lack of passion with which Génova has defended Ayuso has been commented on. They do not believe they want to end her, only that they have seen her so out of sync with this issue that they do not know how to help her. “We are offside. No one can make a passionate defense. We have no solid arguments,” says a source who has been able to verify in recent weeks the confusion running inside the party. The national spokespeople, it seems to them, are succinct and practically limit themselves to saying that it is necessary to attend to the explanations offered by the Community of Madrid.
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The regional government insists that this penthouse was bought, initially, to be the temporary office of the president, something that according to regulations is impossible. Now that they know it and the scandal has erupted, they have decided to sell it. “Is it bought and not known that it cannot be used as an office? It is not credible. We have to give people better arguments,” they explain. Ayuso and the Minister of the Presidency, Miguel Ángel García Martín, on whom Planifica Madrid depends, the public company that executed the purchase, also clarify in all their interventions that the property was not going to be the presidential residence — its use is also not allowed according to regulations — but they also add, without exception, that other regional presidents and ministers have official houses and no one questions it.
The feeling of discouragement is great, to the point that the leadership of the Madrid PP has had to ask its deputies to publicly support Ayuso. “We ask for your collaboration to share and post comments. Many people read us and it would be good to set an example and pull the cart of messages supporting the president’s management,” they requested via WhatsApp. From now on, they announced, they will send them links with the most important “announcements,” which seems like an imposition. Those who do not comply will appear in the photo. On social networks, the feeling is that the Madrid Government has offered explanations that do not convince.
Analysts and commentators who usually defend the president passionately have remained silent on this issue. Alfonso Serrano himself, secretary general of the Madrid PP, someone who usually enters all controversies with passion, seems restrained. In this crisis, the figure of Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, Ayuso’s controversial advisor seasoned in a thousand battles, has not emerged as usual. The narrative has escaped him this time. Rodríguez does not seem to lead the discussion and has not found allies in the conservative press. Abc published an editorial asking the president for explanations on this issue and El Mundo has done the same with a couple of house columnists. The controversy has not died and, far from calming down, it continues. Not even the massive entry of Moroccans into Ceuta has diverted attention. Nor the controversies surrounding La Moncloa that Ayuso wants to rescue. For now, the Madrid Government has not managed to move on from this matter. Everyone wants to know all the details of the penthouse purchase.
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