Surrounded by a scrum of journalists, moving with difficulty through a narrow corridor of the Ateneo de Madrid, the leader of PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has tried to escape this Tuesday from the questions about the plan of the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, to the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, which implies disavowing Feijóo’s own criteria. Twice, once at the entrance to the event and once at the exit, the leader of the conservatives has avoided the informants and has thus avoided commenting on the decision of the Madrid baroness. In addition to challenging the position set by Feijóo – he had said that it would be “a mistake” not to heed the call from La Moncloa –, Ayuso has snubbed the rest of the regional presidents of the PP, who have attended and will attend the round of meetings with Pedro Sánchez. “I do not share that decision: that we go to La Moncloa to give it the go-ahead, which is what they do using that photo,” the Madrid leader insisted. “I don’t want to be part of that picture of normality. “I can’t, I don’t think.”
“Everything is sufficiently explained and everyone has understood it,” Feijóo stated laconically upon his arrival at the historic Madrid cultural institution, although he has not yet commented personally on the controversy (his party did on Monday). At the exit, Feijóo had no choice but to answer the insistent question about whether he supports the Baroness of Madrid. “How can I not support Ayuso?” he responded. “Of course”.
Sources from Feijóo’s cabinet presented on Monday a very nuanced defense of the Madrid leader’s decision to oust the President of the Government. They said that the leader of the PP was understanding of his motivations, but that he also maintained what he said about it being a mistake for a regional president not to answer the call of the chief executive. And the party spokesperson, Borja Sémper, stressed that he “would have gone” to the meeting with the president. In the end, almost free of the journalists, while justifying that he wanted to limit himself to his speech at the Ateneo event, Feijóo made a complaint: “When there is no news, we have to invent it.”
Shortly after, the parliamentary spokesperson of the PP, Miguel Tellado, defended Ayuso in the press room of the Congress of Deputies: “We respect and understand the decision of the president of the Community of Madrid.” “His decision is clearly understandable,” said Tellado, who yesterday attended the meeting of the Madrid PP executive committee in a gesture of support for Ayuso.
Génova has tried to turn the page on the controversy, but Ayuso does not give up. In an interview at Cope, he elaborated on his reasons for abandoning Sánchez. And, in doing so, he has practically disregarded the decision made by his colleagues from other communities, who did heed the call of the President of the Government. “We forget where this round comes from [de reuniones en La Moncloa]“Ayuso reflected. “What is intended with them is that we all work for the President of the Government, that we normalize what is not normal at all, that we assume that the common cash of the Spanish people is divided into pieces,” he continued, alluding to the agreement between the Government and ERC. to provide Catalonia with unique financing. “It can’t be the coupon nor the great concert that they intend to manufacture with the money of all Spaniards, that cannot remain like this. I do not share that decision, that we go to La Moncloa to give it the go-ahead, which is what they do using that photo,” the Madrid leader stressed. And he concluded: “I don’t want to be part of that photo of normality. “I can’t, I don’t think.”
According to Ayuso’s argument, the rest of the PP regional presidents who have already met with Sánchez (seven out of a total of 11) and those who will do so in the coming weeks (all in the end, except her) have “normalized” a Favorable treatment to Catalonia in financing and they have given it “the go-ahead.” These words from the Madrid leader have increased the discomfort of the PP barons with Ayuso’s plan, according to various sources. “It’s not fair,” complains a president in private, who prefers to bite his tongue so as not to fuel the controversy further. “Everyone looks after their own thing,” laments another popular regional president.
But Ayuso is convinced, she stressed, that what she does “is the right thing.” “I have made decisions alone many times and I have found myself in very difficult situations, sometimes against the grain, because I thought it was the best,” she said, bringing up past stages that, although she has not specified it, evoked the internal crisis that confronted her with former PP leader Pablo Casado in 2022. “And that is what happens in this case. I understand that there are presidents who have a series of problems, but I think this is the best for Spain. Stop now, stop dead and say: I am not going to continue normalizing,” Ayuso continued. “We have a Government that goes against Spain. “I don’t want to be part of that meeting, which is not to find out how we are doing.”