• Politics The battle for the PSOE lists in Madrid: dominance of Reyes Maroto, national profiles and a meeting in Ferraz to close them

The configuration of the PSOE list for the Madrid City Council has come to an end after a process full of controversies. The first was the appointment of Reyes Maroto, Minister of Industry, as a candidate for the municipal corporation over the Government delegate in the region, Mercedes González. And then the position of the candidates on the municipal list that Ferraz finally ratified yesterday, without retouching any position, during the celebration of the Federal Committee.

A list that gives the almost absolute power of the party to Reyes Maroto and that supposes a total tsunami in the municipal group. "The results had not been good and it was time for an important change to be made," say sources of the PSOE in Madrid. So important has been that change that among the first ten names that appear only three are currently councilors in the Consistory of the capital. And, if one attends to the panorama drawn by most surveys, only two of them would repeat in Cibeles.

That is the case of Enma López, number three on the list of Reyes Maroto and campaign manager of the head of the list. The Galician, close to the environment of Moncloa, had always appeared in the pools for spokesman of the municipal group during the stage of Pepu Hernández and has become one of the strong figures within the formation in Madrid despite not supporting the current secretary general, Juan Lobato, in the primary process, where he is on the side of Javier Ayala, mayor of Fuenlabrada. The other name he repeats, at number four, is that of Pedro Barrero, focused on the work of Transparency and Participation in the municipal group and very close to López herself.

To find the next member of the current municipal group you have to go down to tenth place on that list, whose presence in Cibeles in the next term is far from guaranteed. This is Emilia Martínez, who repeats the position of 2019 and entered as a councilor in December 2020 due to the departure of Maite Pacheco, appointed by Moncloa general director of Inclusion and Humanitarian Attention. Behind are the also councilors Ignacio Benito, in the 11; Álvaro Vidal, in the 15th, and Natalia Cera, in the 18th. Left out of that list are Ramón Silva and Mar Espinar, who will attend number 7 of the regional list of Juan Lobato for the Assembly.

The new configuration also throws the loss of power of the Government delegate, Mercedes González, who a few months ago was considered a safe candidate for the City Council and who was finally relegated by the Government despite being appointed general secretary of the Socialist Group of the city of Madrid in its creation at the end of 2021. The main asset that counts within the municipal list is that of the until now national deputy Daniel Viondi at number seven. But also, in position five, the deputy secretary general of the Socialists of the capital Enrique Rico.

Precisely the inclusion of profiles close to the Government delegate at the top of the list was one of the issues that strained the development of the same with Reyes Maroto. The former minister intended to configure a candidacy to suit her, as has finally happened, and place people she trusted in the starting positions. This is understood with the delivery of number two to Soledad Murillo, former Secretary of State for Equality. And also with the inclusion of other national profiles such as Adriana Moscoso, general director of Cultural Industries, in sixth position or Ana Isabel Lima, former Secretary of State for Social Services, in eighth.

That clash forced even the regional leadership, headed by Juan Lobato as a mediator, to intervene so that the list could move forward. "The candidate is Reyes and the logical thing is that she is the one who makes the lists. With Mercedes we have asked that you be generous because you are the general secretary of the city. But the command is the candidate" they recognized a couple of weeks ago in the PSOE-M before a key meeting took place in Ferraz with Juan Lobato, Mercedes González and the Secretary of Organization of the National, Santos Cerdán, to close the matter.

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