Isabel Díaz Ayuso, from the Popular Party, broke with Ciudadanos, with whom she had allied to assume the Presidency of the Community, and resolved to dissolve the regional Assembly.
The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, announced on Wednesday the dissolution of the regional Assembly, her resignation and the calling of early elections in the face of two imminent motions of censure against her that were about to be presented.
In this way, the political leader of the historic Popular Party (PP) formally broke its relations with Ciudadanos, a center-right party with which it allied in 2019 to reach the position.
As reported by El Mundo , Díaz Ayuso’s decision was precipitated after Ciudadanos reached an agreement with the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), of President Pedro Sánchez, to present a motion of censure in Murcia, which would cause the removal of the president of that autonomous government, Fernando López Miras, also of the PP.
In a statement to the press, Díaz Ayuso affirmed: “If I did not make this decision, Ciudadanos and the PSOE would have presented a motion of censure, something that they had already spoken about repeatedly, and cause disaster in the Community of Madrid.”
The Madrid hierarch accused her former partner Ciudadanos of joining with Podemos and the PSOE to “overthrow” the Madrid government. “I cannot accept that they raise taxes, that they enter to indoctrinate in schools, that they close shops and the hotel industry or that they destroy the business fabric,” he said, in a clear criticism of the Sánchez government, and added: “I want them to be the Madrilenians the ones who choose between socialism or freedom ”.
While Díaz Ayuso was giving his speech, two motions of censure were presented and accepted in the Madrid Assembly by the PSOE and the Más Madrid sector.
This situation generated a controversy, since if presented before Ayuso’s resolution, the motions would be valid. The argument of the opposition in the Community was that they registered the censure motions in the Assembly at 1:00 p.m. and Ayuso’s resolution had not yet been published in the regional bulletin.
However, a spokesperson for the regional president pointed out that the signing of the decree that dissolved the Assembly and called for new elections took place at 12.25.
The date of the new elections is May 4, but it will depend on what the Justice ultimately decides, as explained by El País de Madrid.
Ciudadanos, meanwhile, denied having supported any motion of censure. El Mundo quoted a source from the center-right party assuring that “neither in recent days nor in recent weeks has Citizens been negotiating a motion of no confidence with the PSOE” and that Ayuso’s fear is “totally unfounded.”
The regional vice president, Ignacio Aguado, who is part of Ciudadanos, said that Díaz Ayuso’s resolution is “the greatest irresponsibility he has done since he assumed the presidency of the Community of Madrid a year and a half ago.”
Aguado argued that at this time Madrid needs “stability above all else”, since there are “more than 400 people still admitted to hospitals” due to the covid-19 pandemic , added to the fact that 94,000 people in the region are unemployed and a “very weakened economy that needs certainties and not recklessness” persists.
The president of the Community of Madrid had already tried to call for early elections in 2020 when, due to its bad relations with Ciudadanos, the PSOE offered to present a motion of censure. It was the PP leadership that at that time stopped the intentions of Díaz Ayuso.