President of the Community of Madrid resigns
Isabel Díaz made the decision to block a hypothetical move by Ciudadanos with the PSOE to kick her out of the Government. Call for elections.
Madrid. The president of the Community of Madrid and rising conservative figure, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, unexpectedly resigned on Wednesday and called regional elections for May 4, a shock for the center-right in Spain and the country’s political map.
In a day of high voltage, the policy of the Popular Party (PP, right) surprisingly decided to dissolve its coalition government with the center-right Ciudadanos party, and call elections in the richest region and the third most populated in Spain.
Seeking to derail the electoral call, the socialists and the left-wing More Madrid party presented motions of censure, which were accepted by the regional Parliament, confirmed a source in the chamber.
According to the regulations, Parliament cannot be dissolved if there are motions of no confidence in progress, which augurs a judicial fight to clarify the issue and whether or not there will finally be elections on May 4.
In a televised statement, Díaz Ayuso defended his decision to advance elections in the face of “institutional instability” generated by Ciudadanos, which hours earlier had put an end to one of the other three governments of the center-right coalition in Murcia.
In that small region of southeastern Spain, the Socialist Party, which governs at the national level in the hands of Pedro Sánchez, had presented a motion of censure hours before, which will expel the PP from power with the support of Ciudadanos.
A whole political turn for this last party, a liberal formation that was initially presented as a hinge between right and left, but that in recent years had been heeled to the right and allied with the PP to govern in Madrid, Murcia, Andalusia and Castile and Leon.
In her appearance, the Madrid president alleged that she sought to prevent the Socialists and Citizens from applying the same recipe to her in Madrid and causing a “disaster” in the region, where the legislature originally expired in May 2023.
“Madrid needs a stable government,” said Díaz Ayuso, after the blow that the coronavirus pandemic and its economic impact have caused the region.
While the political earthquake shook Madrid and Murcia, in Castilla y León and Andalusia the PP and Ciudadanos confirmed that their governments are not in danger.
The far-right party Vox, the third largest force in the country and which gave its support for the PP and Ciudadanos to come to power in Madrid, Murcia and Andalusia, celebrated the advancement of elections in the capital, but also requested it in Andalusia, “to avoid the left’s assault on the institutions “.