The queen of freed Madrid has won. Isabel Diaz Ayuso doubled the votes and seats obtained just two years ago when SarsCov2 would have been a typo. He won for his handling of the pandemic, for his war on lockdowns, for the possibility of having a beer in the square at 11 pm while the rest of Spain and Europe closed down double. Masks and distancing s, but no closures, the least possible in order not to run into appeals by the central government. Bars, theaters, cinemas, restaurants with limited filling, but open. Schools practically always in presence except in a few neighborhoods when and if the contagion galloped madly. From the right to beer, the challenge of the very idea of lockdown has become the right to freedom. The easy tale to tell was that the central (center-left) government reacted to the virus with the instinct typical of its old communist mentality: it closed bars because it does not trust individuals as well as increases taxes because it does not trust people. entrepreneurs and centralizes the economy. The government of Ayuso (Partido Popular), on the other hand, is liberal, individualist: it has left the bars open as it leaves money in the pockets of citizens because it believes in private initiative, in freedom. Thus from the balcony of Calle Genova, the seat of the PP, the national leader Casado was able to say today freedom has won in Madrid, tomorrow he will win all over Spain. Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Snchez warned.
The result of the challenge with the national government in the name of freedom can be summed up in three numbers. More than 1% of GDP in its Comunidad of Madrid compared to the national average; plus 35% mortality; 4 ..% of votes in yesterday’s early elections.
For once, the polls had got the results right months in advance. Ayuso had been able to see since the winter how much the popularity of the madrileos rose on her name and went to the box office. So he organized a crisis of his regional government and this early vote, despite the pandemic and despite the fact that in two years we will have to vote again. He could not let months pass, make his anti Covid enterprise forget.
As expected Ayuso didn’t hit the jackpot, didn’t reach an absolute majority. Per has regained center-right hegemony for the PP. He canceled the centrists of Ciudadanos who from 19% in 2019 fall below the minimum threshold of 5% and are unable even to bring a representative to the regional assembly. All the votes from Ciudadanos poured into the PP. They went home. To replicate the results of the 90s and 00s, the votes of the far right are still missing, which today has found hospitality outside the PP in Vox, the party explicitly nostalgic for Francoism. Vox has improved the 2019 result a little and will serve Ayuso to govern as a partner in the regional executive or as an external crutch. It won’t be a problem for the anti-lockdown governor. First, because the entire left does not reach its deputies, which opens up the hypothesis of a single-color minority government. Secondly, for Ayuso if they call you a fascist, you’re on the right side of history.
The left licks its wounds. Loses the PSOE, drops from 37 to 26 seats, leaving votes to the minor teams on his left. National leader Pedro Snchez may not be very sorry because it gives him the opportunity to rejuvenate the local cadres of the party, not all loyal to him. Ms Madrid, the civic list on the left, confirms the roots of the citizen and grows from 20 to 24 deputies. Unidas Podemos, the feminist left heir to the Indignados movement, takes advantage of the descent into the field of the national leader Pablo Iglesias and grows a few points from 7 to 10 seats.
May 4, 2021 (change May 4, 2021 | 11:07 pm)
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