Not a step back. Not a doubt. Quite the opposite. One day after receiving the president of Argentina, Javier Milei, at the Real Casa de Correos, the president of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, this Saturday rides the wave of controversies and institutional tension generated by the event and tries to use it to mobilize to the voters of the PP and Vox against the Government of Pedro Sánchez. It happens in a park in the capital of Spain, where the PP of Madrid closes ranks around its president, who takes the floor to proclaim her truths: in her opinion, it does not matter that Milei (a “brave”, she defines him) has been charging against Sánchez, because at the origin of the diplomatic conflict between Spain and Argentina, he argues, are some words from Minister Óscar Puente, who suggested that Milei could have consumed “substances.” “I have not seen the president of Argentina insult either Spain or the King,” says Ayuso. That she does do it with Sánchez, it goes without saying, she doesn’t care about the leader of the PP. Perhaps that is why the vice president, María José Montero, does not address her, but rather the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez-Feijóo, when this Saturday she demands that he “modulate, rectify or separate himself” from Friday’s ceremony.
Saturday’s day begins with the hangover of Milei’s reception at the Real Casa de Correos, where the Argentine arrived after referring to Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, as “corrupt”, and after defining the Spanish president as an “arrogant socialist” or a “coward.” Before Ayuso praises Milei ―”you have to be brave to lead a country sunk by Kirchnerism,” he says―, and before he defends the award of the medal ―“they threaten us for maintaining institutional relations “as brother peoples: they have received a medal because we have that power,” he says, “only a minority without any weight in the Madrid PP arrives at the rally with a negative view of what happened.
“The regulations fail to comply with the Community of Madrid’s own regulations, because Milei is not on an official trip,” says a source who knows the ins and outs of the organization. “As always, Ayuso has put the rest of the national PP and the other barons in the position of having to defend that act,” he continues. “That is easier for those who govern with Vox. For the rest…”
For the rest, who seek moderation, it is not so easy. That is the wound in which the first vice president of the Government, María Jesús Montero, pours salt this Saturday, when she demands that the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, “modulate, rectify or separate himself” from the attacks on the Government in the delivery of the international medal from Madrid to Milei.
In statements to the press after the swearing in of Imanol Pradales as lehendakariMontero regrets that with this act the Community of Madrid has made, in his opinion, a “policy of confrontation and persecution” of the Government of Spain. “And that was not the most striking thing, but the speeches” of that event, he says. Thus, the vice president of the Government criticizes the “very destructive” argument of the Argentine president against equal opportunities, the collective and the welfare state, considering that taxes are a “theft and attack on private property” and defending the “ law of the jungle.” Consequently, Montero asks for “respect and institutional loyalty” from Ayuso.
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However, the bridges of the relationship between the two administrations have been broken for a long time, as the president of Madrid demonstrates by once again accusing Sánchez of “buying the elections in Catalonia” with the money of the Spanish people, linking the negotiations to invest Salvador Illa as president with the Government’s negotiations with ERC for the financing of Catalonia. And there is no turning back.
For this reason, the Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant, affirms that the reception to Milei “confirms” that Ayuso and José María Aznar, “and not Feijóo”, mark the political discourse in the PP. For this reason, one day after the meeting, the hard core of the president in the PP sees the ceremony as “a success.” And that is why the Madrid Government, given the reaction from the left, or the criticism from media normally more aligned with Ayuso, ensures that they would not reconsider receiving Milei once the consequences were known: “Not at all: it was an institutional act to the height of a head of state.”
The interventions at the rally, called this Saturday on the occasion of the first anniversary of the victory in the regional and municipal elections of May 2023, reflect that conviction. It is enough to listen to the mayor of the capital, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, charging against criticism from the left.
“President, they are mad at us because we have the highest responsibility that can be had in Spain for Pedro Sánchez: we are the main political and democratic battering ram for him to stop being president, a fundamental battering ram,” the councilor says, clearly. “There is no political model more opposed to that of Pedro Sánchez than that of Madrid and the PP of Isabel Díaz Ayuso,” he continues. “We represent everything that Sánchez detests.”
As usual, Ayuso does not lower that belligerent tone. On the contrary, he multiplies it and dedicates long stretches of his intervention to defending Milei’s reception. There is even a moment of plot mimesis – “socialism takes us downwards, to zero,” says Ayuso. But above all there is an effort to defend the autonomy of the Government of Madrid by comparing it with that of Catalonia, as if Ayuso did not realize that it seems that he is demanding for her the same thing that the independentists have been demanding for years.
“And then we regional presidents cannot invite international leaders,” he says after launching a barrage of criticism against Sánchez. “How much money has gone to embassies, to that dream? And the Government doesn’t say anything to that? ”He asks in reference to the Catalan independentists. “That is foreign policy,” he adds, thus responding to criticism that his reception of Milei did not comply with the legal requirements established by the state law on foreign action.
“If there are Catalan embassies, if it is possible with the money of the working class, why can’t we maintain ties of brotherhood with nations with which we have been united for long centuries?” he asks. And he concludes: “There is more and more independence for false republics that have never existed.” [por Cataluña], and less freedom for supportive Autonomous Communities like Madrid. Is that the game? Is that what you have to endure?”
The hundreds of people gathered to listen to Ayuso burst into shouts and applause. The Baroness governs with an absolute majority, and none of the controversies that surround her seem to affect her influence (from the alleged tax fraud committed by her partner, to the irregularities detected in the home they share, to the reception of Milei). .
Equality before the law
“They are the ones who decide who deserves a medal,” says Ayuso about the left and the distinction granted to Milei, under discussion because the rule requires that the winner be on an official visit to Madrid. “For them [la izquierda], everything, but for those of us who have not provoked international conflicts with sister nations, we have to stay put and continue with the misery,” he complains. “Well no,” she says. “In the Community of Madrid it is not. “No means no”, he closes, recovering the ironies of destiny, the slogan that has made the most fortune in Sánchez’s mouth.
“I inform the gentlemen of the PSOE, who have become so nervous this week, that the PP has always had Argentina in its speeches (…) We do not have to enter into a game of political disputes that provoke ministers [por Puente] “They only know how to insult, offend, and don’t know how to do their job,” he continues. And he says: “Why do we have to continue down the path of confrontation that Sanchismo takes us?”
There is only one moment in which Ayuso manages to make the audience turn up even more the volume of the applause and screams that follow her speech. It is not when he launches his new slogan ― “Sanchismo is Chavismo” ―. Nor when he charges against the State Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz. Not even when he criticizes that the Constitutional Court has partially annulled the conviction of the socialist Magdalena Álvarez for the ERE case. That moment comes when Ayuso remembers that all Spaniards are equal before the law: “You, your family and your Government too.”
The memory of the case that affects Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, summoned to testify for the alleged commission of the crimes of corruption in the private sector and influence peddling; and the proceedings opened against her brother for an alleged crime against the Administration, inflame the public. The memory of Milei, the same: Ayuso defends her date with the president of Argentina, now converted into a photo that will always accompany her.
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