It is a PP rally in Madrid, but it could well be a conclave to vindicate a politician in a bad moment. It takes place this Thursday in Arganda del Rey, where the top brass of the party is going to kick off the new political year. Two names are mentioned in all the interventions: that of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to criticise him; and that of Ana Millán, the vice-secretary of the PP and vice-president of the Assembly, to support her after the investigation that affects her for the alleged commission of a crime of administrative prevarication reaches the High Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM). Thus, from Díaz Ayuso to the mayor of Arganda, Alberto Escribano, the conservatives are turning out, as did the mayor of the capital, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, on Tuesday, in defence of the former mayor of Arroyomolinos. In this way, the political credit of all is linked to the judicial resolution of the case that affects Millán.
“Don’t doubt that if you weren’t Ayuso’s ‘um-um’, you wouldn’t be under this media pressure,” the regional and party president said before a devoted audience, making official the general sense of the PP: that Millán is being used to attack her and wear her down. “Ayuso’s neighbour, Ayuso’s cousin, Ayuso’s boyfriend, Ayuso’s ‘um’… It doesn’t matter,” the baroness continues. “It’s the surname and nothing else that you have on top of you, but we’re already used to it.”
Just like the leader of the PP in Madrid, all of her predecessors on the stage take advantage of the formal greetings with which she begins each speech to add a phrase in favour of Millán.
This is what Mayor Escribano says: “Ana Millán, a big kiss. They will tell you this, but you have the whole party with you.”
Or the party’s spokesman in the Assembly, Carlos Díaz Pache: “Dear Ana Millán, thank you for your example and your courage always.”
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And the same was done by the mayor of the capital, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, on Tuesday: “I want to send a message to Ana Millán, of course, of confidence (…) total and absolute respect for the judicial procedure, but I am sure that Ana Millán is, of course, innocent.”
The former mayor of Arroyomolinos and deputy secretary of Sectoral Action of the regional party has been part of Ayuso’s political and generational circle for years. This friendship contextualizes the explicit support she has received at her worst moment from all the leaders of the PP in Madrid. The investigation that affects her focuses on clarifying whether the businessman Francisco Roselló, who between 2006 and 2011 obtained seven public contracts for his companies valued at 395,191.75 euros from the Youth Department of the Arroyomolinos City Council (Madrid), was paying the mortgage and the community fees of a penthouse owned by Millán, who was then a councilor in charge of that portfolio in the municipality.
The now MP argues that the 51,104.67 euros she received from the company and the businessman, according to the court order, were simply the payment for the rent of her home in favour of Roselló, who would also have sublet the property. Both Millán’s sister and partner received payments from companies linked to the businessman (88,642.42 euros and 37,578.04, respectively), and in the form of work and economic activities, according to the court documentation. In addition, in Millán’s accounts “numerous cash deposits were found [por valor de 42.650,00 euros] of unknown origin, also beginning in 2008,” the same year in which Rosell and his companies would have begun paying rent and services to the politician’s partner and sister.
For all these reasons, and given that Millán has immunity, a judge from a Navalcarnero court recused herself in June in favour of the TSJM after pointing out that due to their relationship with Roselló “they could be the perpetrators of crimes of prevarication, bribery, influence peddling and fraud against the public administration”.
For the researchers, who point out that each and every one of their conclusions must be understood in terms of presumption, the “active” participation of the current deputy in the contracts has been demonstrated.
“Everything related to the Educational Group [una de las empresas de Roselló] “Ana Millán personally handled it,” declared a City Council administrative assistant who worked closely with the councillor as a witness, according to the case documentation. “Ana Millán met alone with her director, Francisco Roselló, locking herself in her office,” described the municipal worker, as transcribed by the Civil Guard, to whom the witness stressed that she was not present at any of these meetings, although she did participate in those that took place with other companies; and that Millán “pushed her aside, not letting her intervene.” And she insisted: “When people from Grupo Educativo came to his council office, they locked themselves in Ana Millán’s office.”
In addition, the work of the Civil Guard served to portray the internal tensions over public procurement in the municipality.
Thus, the contracting technician acknowledged in a statement that she had some problems with Millán, “in the contracts for the celebration of parties, because she did not agree with the legal warnings that the declarant made about her contracts or the legal reports regarding the characteristics of her contracts.” A situation that was corroborated by an administrative assistant when she stated that “the contracting technician warned Ana Millán, in relation to the awarding of contracts, that she had to follow the legal channels.” Although she specified: “At no time did she think that she was doing something illegal.”
In addition, investigators tried to find out whether Millán’s sister received preferential treatment as an employee of companies linked to Roselló. “Professionally, she doesn’t know,” said a co-worker in this regard, according to the Civil Guard report. “Although, personally, she believes that she did, unlike the rest of the workers.” However, the document also includes testimonies that underline that they did not have that perception.
Long friendship
Millán and Díaz Ayuso have known each other for years. Both were raised politically in the heat of the aguirrismThey shared the same passion and the same internal springboard: communication.
That is why Millán is in all the photos that reflect Ayuso’s gradual rise in the PP. When the current president organised a political communication course with the Rey Juan Carlos University in 2014, the mayor was there as a student. When Ayuso was named leader of the party’s membership committee in Madrid in 2017, Millán sat next to her. When Cristina Cifuentes promoted her to deputy minister for the Presidency and Justice in 2018, Millán attended the celebration. And when Pablo Casado chose her as a surprising candidate for the regional presidency in 2019, and Ayuso had to make herself known, Arroyomolinos’s policy was there to mobilise against the A-5 traffic jams alongside other local PP leaders.
“My friend,” Millán describes the president, who has so far shown total confidence in her innocence. When the conservative baroness won the presidency of the regional PP, she appointed Millán as deputy secretary of Organization and Territorial Affairs, a key position for the party’s electoral campaigns. She subsequently inclu
ded her on her electoral list, guaranteeing her immunity. And after achieving an absolute majority in May 2023, she rewarded her with the first vice-presidency of the regional Assembly: that is why Millán directs the sections of the plenary session in which the president, Enrique Ossorio, is absent. Few in the PP doubt that the former mayor of Arroyomolinos would today be a regional government councilor, for example, on Social Policies, if her case were closed favorably for her interests.
In fact, all these appointments took place while Millán was being investigated for administrative malfeasance and also had the backing of the leader’s powerful chief of staff, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, who personally met with the candidate to learn the details of her case. And that is why the PP now unequivocally supports the party’s number three, while waiting for the TSJM to rule on her case.
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