The former mayor of Madrid Manuela Carmena, who these days teaches a course in political ethics at a radio station, minimized the imposition of fines for irregularly accessing Central Madrid before the 26-M municipal elections . According to the data to which EL MUNDO has agreed, during the electoral campaign barely 200 sanctions were imposed per day, while after the elections, which dismantled it from the City Hall and precipitated its withdrawal from institutional policy, the files almost reached 2,700 per day
The data that this newspaper advances today leaves little room for doubt: in the whole month of May 13,361 sanctions were imposed for improperly accessing the Central Madrid area, while in June, when More Madrid already knew that it would not maintain the Mayor's Office, the fines soared to 79,908. In May, in addition, there is the curious circumstance that between 6 and 29 days 6,089 drivers were sanctioned, while in just two days, 30 and 31, 7,272 vehicles were fined . The elections had been four days before.
Did the Government of Manuela Carmena apply a disguised moratorium on sanctions in Central Madrid before the municipal elections so as not to be punished at the polls? The mayor and her former Mobility delegate, Inés Sabanés, will have to respond, but the truth is that in that month of May the search for a Madrid resident who had been notified of a sanction for entering irregularly to Central Madrid became a priority journalistic objective . With little success, by the way.
Again, the data can shed light on the question. Fines in Central Madrid were activated on March 16, after a period of information without penalty. From March 16 to 31, 4,171 sanctions were applied, while from April 1 to 30, they were 7,358. In May, as we have said, 13,361 were imposed, although more than half correspond to days 30 and 31, after the municipal elections . And in June, when Carmena had already renounced his act as councilman and abandoned institutional policy, they shot at almost 80,000.
Of 200 sanctions a day during the May election campaign, it was passed to almost 2,700 in the month of June. Of these sanctions are deducted the 6,000 that the City Council notified by mistake.
The very low number of sanctions in Central Madrid is surprising in the months of March, April and May if we compare them with the pre-existing APRs (private traffic restriction zones), those of Opera, Courts, Ambassadors and Letters. In November 2018, the last month in which they were operational before joining Central Madrid, they accumulated more than 35,000 disciplinary proceedings, for October 37,000 and September 43,000. Figures very different from those of Central Madrid in the electoral month of May , but in line with those of June, since the new traffic restriction zone is greater.
How was this covert moratorium articulated in Central Madrid before the 26M elections? Already at the beginning of July, the new delegate of the Mobility and Environment area, Borja Carabante, confirmed that his predecessor in the position, Inés Sabanés, ordered that only vehicles without environmental badge -diesel prior to 2006 and previous gasoline be sanctioned to 2000- once a month , while he applied an amnesty to cars with labels B and C.
Two days before the inauguration of José Luis Martínez-Almeida as mayor on June 15, the Sabanés area changed the directive and ordered the cars to be fined without a badge once a week and B and C once a month. When the new government team acceded to their positions, it ordered that the municipal ordinance be fulfilled , and the sanctions in June were almost 80,000, as EL MUNDO reveals today.
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