• Speech Ayuso warns of the "danger" of questioning "the capital" of Madrid in the acts of Dos de Mayo: "No Nation would do it"
  • Community Day The Government of Ayuso prevents Bolaños from climbing to the tribune of authorities where Feijóo was

The absolute rupture between the central government and the Community of Madrid has been evident for months, especially as a result of the pandemic. But the acts of Dos de Mayo, held yesterday in the middle of Puerta del Sol, already built the public image of the struggle when the head of protocol of the regional government, Alejandra Blázquez, prevented the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, from accessing the rostrum as an institutional representative of Moncloa before the military parade. A moment that summarizes two hours (and several more months) of friction between administrations that, they understand in Sol, gives them a little more impetus towards the absolute majority.

"What happens in Madrid will resonate throughout Spain," regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso had said during her speech in an electoral wink. And before that majority resonates or not in the 28-M without Vox, before that hypothetical success becomes or not in resounding assault of Alberto Núñez Feijóo to Moncloa, before a 2-M already resonates that shows the determination of Ayuso even in front of the Government, in a strategy that already gave him high return two years ago.

The head of the Presidency arrived in a heated atmosphere the previous day. The regional government insisted that he was not invited and that "by protocol" he had no place. Finally, at the medal ceremony, the white sticker with his name was in the front row, next to the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles. There was the only meeting between the minister and Ayuso. A cold handshake, speechless, that stretched a second longer than the rest.

Everything foreshadowed that the storm would not go beyond some high-sounding declaration. Nothing could be further from the truth: the minister ended up confronting the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, after being asked about his presence in San Isidro on May 15. "If I am treated like this, I do not know how you will treat the 7 million people of Madrid," he snapped, already deranged by the placage to which he was subjected after maneuvering to get on stage.

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Community of Madrid.

Alejandra Blázquez, Ayuso's chief of protocol who prevented Bolaños from climbing the rostrum of the Dos de Mayo parade

  • Writing: CARLOS GUISASOLA Madrid
  • Writing: PABLO R. ROCES Madrid

Alejandra Blázquez, Ayuso's chief of protocol who prevented Bolaños from climbing the rostrum of the Dos de Mayo parade

Politics.

The socialist Lambán aligns with Ayuso against Bolaños: "A minister is not fundamental in an autonomous act"

  • Editor: JAVIER ORTEGA Zaragoza

The socialist Lambán aligns with Ayuso against Bolaños: "A minister is not fundamental in an autonomous act"

In his speech, Ayuso focused on the institutional message, but veiled criticism of the government also arrived. Ayuso started it by quoting the philosopher José Ortega y Gasset when pointing out that nothing is understood without explaining "the why and the for what". "The why and why of Madrid are in Spain. Since Madrid is the capital of Spain, we have been the center of the Hispanic world, Europe and the Mediterranean. Today we are one of the key regions of the European Union, admired in the world, "said the regional president, who, in an argument that has been repeating, slipped that "no nation would endanger such a heritage." And he advanced: "From this Puerta del Sol, 'who knows everything', we finish another Dos de Mayo this love letter to Madrid, thinking out loud how lucky we are, and what an immense responsibility, because what happens here will resonate throughout Spain."

Direct message to the Moncloa Palace, because in Sol they know that the direct confrontation drives them and blurs their rivals on the left, yesterday buried by the controversy.

Self-invitation

Once the ceremony was over, and before the military parade, the minister attended the media with the controversy over his self-invitation as the main issue. "I am convinced that on May 28 in Madrid a government that resembles its people, welcoming, hospitable, tolerant, plural, that represents everyone, will emerge from the polls," began Bolaños, who immediately, and without allowing questions, charged inks against Ayuso. "I'm sorry to disappoint the twitchers because I'm not going to spend a second on the issue that has been artificially put on the table."

It was after these statements when the head of the Presidency went to the outskirts of the Post Office Palace to climb to the tribune of authorities during the parade, which was prevented by the head of Protocol of the Government of Ayuso. "We have a perfectly established organization," Alejandra Blázquez repeated four times, preventing the minister's passage. The trigger for the small amagos to sprout already in fire without control.

Moncloa sources claimed that the president had "skipped the most basic rules" of the State and resorted to Royal Decree 2099/1983, which includes the General Order of Precedence in the State. The literalness of the legal text states that the ministers, in plural, have preference over the leader of the opposition, the mayor of the capital, the vice president of the Community, the president of the Assembly or the JEMAD, all in the gallery. In fact, according to the decree, only the regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, with the highest rank by Ministry, would precede Bolaños.

"They believe that this is their farmhouse and leave out of the gallery a minister for being a socialist even having more protocol rank," they stressed from the central government. From Ferran they added: "Preventing a minister of the Government of Spain from accessing the tribune of authorities, exercising physical force, crosses all the red lines of institutional respect and common sense."

From the team of the regional president insisted that the Government was already "conveniently" represented in that rostrum by the Minister of Defense. Sources around Ayuso indicated that the minister came "with the intention of blowing up the act of the people of Madrid." As proof, they pointed to the images where Bolaños is seen dodging the separation tape and several attendees, including Reyes Maroto and Juan Lobato, PSOE candidates in the capital and in the region, to try to join the entourage towards the tribune. Stopped at the access ladder, he then returned to his original place. Before his departure, immediate like that of the rest of the members of the PSOE, who barely remained at the cocktail party after the confrontation, Bolaños still had that dialectical crossing with the mayor of Madrid.

The relationship of the holder of the Presidency with the Community of Madrid was already vitiated since the celebration of Dos de Mayo 2022. There, Bolaños went to preside over the acts by a delegation decree signed by Pedro Sánchez, who had declined the invitation of the regional government and left the command to his minister. Just hours earlier, he had called a press conference to report that the mobile phones of the president and the defense minister had been infected by Pegasus. A fact interpreted in Sol as a way to "burst" the act. Hence, this year the invitation was extended to the Minister of Territorial Policy, Isabel Rodríguez, and the leadership fell on Ayuso in an election year.

The decree of controversy

DEFENSE PREFER. Royal Decree 2099/1983 to which Moncloa clings regulates the "regime of precedence of public positions and entities in official acts". In this regulation, Defense, which would be the third ministry by hierarchy, predominates over the Presidency, which does not appear until eleventh place on the list.

MINISTERS, PLURAL. The legal text places the ministers, in the plural, at number 12 of the hierarchical scale. Although the leader of the opposition also appears, he does so in 16th position. To get to the mayor of the capital you would have to go down to the 19th. And the Chief of the Defence Staff does not do so until the 25th. All of them were yesterday in the tribune of authorities with the president of the Community of Madrid.

  • Margarita Robles
  • Add
  • PSOE
  • Isabel Diaz Ayuso
  • Isabel Rodriguez Garcia
  • Reyes Maroto
  • Pedro Sanchez
  • Miquel Iceta
  • European Union
  • Europe
  • Alberto Núñez Feijóo
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