The PP was left alone this Monday in its support for the municipal budgets for 2025, which have gone ahead thanks to the absolute majority enjoyed by the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez Almeida, since he won the municipal elections in 2023. The rest of the opposition groups, Más Madrid, PSOE and even Vox, which abstained last year, have rejected the accounts for not being “real”, for “defending those who have the most” and for applying “a fiscal sword to the people of Madrid”, while they defended their respective amendments to the entirety, which had previously been knocked down in committee but which have been rejected again in the municipal plenary session given that each group has only supported its own.
The Treasury delegate, Engracia Hidalgo, who has defended the budgets, has accused the three opposition spokespersons, Sara Ladra (Más Madrid), Enma López (PSOE) and Arantxa Cabello (Vox), of using the data “in a torticera” and has described next year’s accounts as “rigorous and prudent” that will make Madrid a “more vigorous city” where taxes are lowered, “spending is increased like never before social” looking at the “most vulnerable”.
Despite the good intentions shown in recent weeks by Almeida, of the 532 partial amendments presented by the three opposition groups, the PP has only accepted a total of 36 in committee: 17 from the PSOE, 11 from Más Madrid and 8 from Vox, although some of them have not managed to survive in this Monday’s Plano.
As recalled by the Treasury delegate, the budget of the Madrid City Council for 2025 will amount to 6,277 million, 5.7% more than in the current year, specifically 338 million more with projects in the area of Urban Planning and Mobility – the most benefited. – such as the burying of the A-5 and the final section of Paseo de Castellana or the covering of the M-30 at Ventas. Hidalgo has boasted of its investment in Housing with the construction of eleven new developments with a total of 865 homes. In addition, the debt will remain below 2,000 million euros in 2025.
But what Hidalgo has had the most impact on is the tax reduction, which in his opinion is “historic” and will mean “relief” and tax savings for the people of Madrid, which will benefit the “economic sustainability of the capital that It enjoys – Hidalgo said – “a surplus of 81 million euros” that will be allocated primarily to “social spending” which according to its data “in 2025 will reach 327 million per inhabitant when the previous year was 252 million.”
In addition, he has boasted that a greater investment in urban planning with 112 million for the southeastern districts, the Nuevo Norte and Campamento projects “for the development of new housing in public-private collaboration” and has highlighted that the EMVS budget, ” the largest housing developer in Spain”, rises to 68 million euros. The Treasury delegate has not forgotten to remember that in Madrid today we have “better air quality.” For all this, Hidalgo has ruled that “approving these budgets is an act of responsibility
They deny a minute of silence for Marisa Paredes
The spokesperson for Más Madrid, Sara Ladra, the first thing she did in her first intervention was to complain that the PP had prevented them from keeping “a minute of silence” for the death of the actress Marisa Paredes when on other occasions for the death Of other personalities it has been done. He then stated that these budgets are “another lost opportunity to transform Madrid”, “create more housing” or “reinforce public services”.
“You have been giving up on making Madrid better for six years,” Ladra said, recalling “the garbage rate” that Almeida has applied with the excuse that it is an imposition of the Government of Pedro Sánchez and a directive of the European Union. That said, it has disgraced him that they continue with “the raca-raca that the State is financially suffocating and mistreating Madrid,” when this Government is giving them more money than ever, 50% more than in previous years.”
Ladra has criticized that the Almeida Government is paying debt interest of 110 million more while “they give tax gifts to those who have the most.” And also its housing policy with “a ridiculous budget response”: “It lacks ambition in its plan with only two new developments. In housing we are behind and this means that many young people in the capital cannot become independent,” he reproached him.
Nor has he forgotten to attack “the climate denialism” of the PP, along the same lines as Vox, while reproaching the municipal government for having created only “57 meters of bike lanes” or for reducing “investment to improve green areas.”
The spokesperson for Más Madrid has also highlighted the decline in subsidies in Madrid “for human rights associations” that “leave out LGTBI groups” while increasing them for the Chambers of Commerce, or the lack of budget for the violence network of victims of gender violence.
“They think more about the great fortunes to whom they do not stop giving tax gifts,” Ladra told him while they build “more luxury hotels and tourist apartments” at the expense of closing local and local businesses, Ladra explained.
Enma López, from the PSOE: “They have not transformed anything”
For her part, the socialist spokesperson, Enma López, asked the Treasury delegate “where are the 4,000 million that they say to spend and invest in Madrid.” “You don’t manage anything, neither the future nor the present, you haven’t transformed anything, you just put patches and more patches.” Specifically, in terms of mobility, López told Hidalgo that the city is “anchored in the last century: cars, cars and more cars,” while they eliminate bike lanes.
“There is no one who can pay for a home, it is the Government of the balls,” he later said. “You promised 12,000 new apartments, but you have only built 206. It would not take you in 14 years to fulfill your promise,” the socialist told her, also reminding her that “they boycott the state law” on housing, “they get rid of municipal plots” and “ They do not protect protected homes” so that they do not go into the hands of vulture funds as happened with the former mayor, Ana Botella.
The socialist spokesperson has agreed with that of Más Madrid in reproaching the municipal government for “for another year forgetting to eliminate the scalextric from Vallecas”, one of Almeida’s promises.
Vox: “This is a budget more worthy of Carmena”
From Vox, its spokesperson, Arantxa Cabello, stated as soon as she began her intervention that today was a “bad day for the people of Madrid” because this new budget “brings the largest tax increase in recent years, with some 332 million more euros” , “a perfect budget worthy of Carmena or the socialists” and “worthy of the fanaticism of green taxes,” he stated. The Vox spokesperson has also charged against Almeida’s “waste tax”, ensuring that although it had been imposed by Europe, the PP has also subscribed to it.
Cabello has denied that the IBI has been lowered four times, “as you say.” “It is not true, the decrease is ridiculous and a joke,” and he assured that Madrid is suffering “the biggest fiscal blow in many years,” with a tax increase that is “unsustainable for many Madrid residents.” “They have left a hostile Madrid, without freedom,” stated Vox. He has also criticized that they have “spent the remainder that was in the box” and have not stopped “asking for additional credits”, “because what they like is spending.”
The Vox spokesperson has finally insisted that the Almeida Government must comply with the ruling that annuls the Low Emissions Zone. In his second turn, Cabello has accused the PP Government of “arrogance” for doing “whatever they want with their absolute majority.”
In her reply, the Treasury delegate had previously accused the three opposition spokespersons of not telling the truth and twisting the data in a “twisted” way and has been dismantling the figures that Más Madrid PSOE and Vox have given in all areas.
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