• Budgets Almeida was aware of the legal difficulties of the agreement with the Mixed Group to lower the IBI: "It was transferred from the first moment"

The mayor of Madrid,

José Luis Martínez-Almeida

, was interviewed by Susana Griso on the Antena 3 program 'Espejo Público'.

Seven months before the elections, with the budgets for 2023 still to be approved, and with the drop in IBI blocked for current accounts, the Madrid councilor sees a second term in the Palacio de Cibeles quite close.

A second stage in which, according to internal polls, he would be close to an absolute majority.

"We have surveys that are good and with data that support the management. We are managing a percentage of the vote above 40%, which places us around the absolute majority. We are glad that the people of Madrid value this work positively, although not We can trust ourselves. We have seven months to complete the work, but we do not get confused with that work. We want to continue building an exciting project, Almeida pointed out, about that electoral race that already seems to have begun.

It seems so, for example, because of the movements of Vox, which was vital in 2019 so that the baton has been in his possession for the last three and a half years.

The relationship between the two parties, the connection between him and

Ortega Smith

has long since changed.

The red lines for the next budgets are one more example.

"Lately, Vox is lurching. We have seen it in the commission for the residences of the Community of Madrid and in the City Council. We have been budgeting for three years and Vox has voted abstention, for and against in this time. It is clear that they have a certain electoral urgency. While they lurch, we are going to continue doing the same, "he assured during his intervention on Antena 3.

In that line, that of the budgets, that of the red lines, that of his cloudy relationship with Ortega Smith, he insisted again.

"Madrid's budgets for the year 2023 are very important, taxes are lowered and public services are maintained. If the people of Madrid do not have red lines, we politicians cannot have red lines to sit down to negotiate either. I ask Ortega Smith before to talk about Almeida, think about the people of Madrid", he maintained.

The frustrated drop in the IBI

Almeida also referred to the report of the municipal legal advice that says "not be in accordance with law" the lowering of the IBI (Real Estate Tax) for the current budgets agreed with the Mixed Group.

These requested direct aid to natural persons who have the status of taxpayer of the IBI in the current year, who were owners of a property for residential use for less than 300,000 euros, provided that they were registered in the municipality and did not have any other urban property.

"In the last budgets we proposed a reduction in IBI for all Madrid residents and we negotiated with the councilors of the Mixed group. They said not to all, but to those who had certain conditions. The IBI is a real tax and they were warned of that. Legal services have said that it cannot be done. Not in those conditions of some yes and others no", recognized the mayor, who did not pass up the opportunity to speak about the scene that the President of the Government,

Pedro Sánchez

, starred in during the Parade of the Hispanic

"The whistles are a sign of the citizens' weariness, but I think that on the day of the National Holiday I don't like them to occur, although people have every right in the world to express themselves," he said.

"Pedro Sánchez made a calculation error in time, since this year he wanted to repeat the same maneuver to avoid whistles, but he was wrong. Respect for institutions is not measured in time, it is not if one arrives 50 seconds late. This It was not an oversight, this was intentional," he concluded.

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