• May 2 Moncloa accuses the PP of acting "like an anti-system party" in the conflict with Ayuso and the PSOE in Madrid laments: "They are eclipsing us"
  • Madrid Ayuso justifies the clash with Bolaños in that Dos de Mayo "is not a day for ministers": "We are required to surrender and not"

Five years have had to pass so that in the celebration of Dos de Mayo – the day of the Community of Madrid – there has been a moment of political tension greater than that of 2018. On that occasion, only a month before the motion of censure against Mariano Rajoy and with Cristina Cifuentes recently resigned from the regional presidency in full controversy for her master's degree and after the dissemination of the old video stealing creams in a supermarket, the protagonists were Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, María Dolores de Cospedal and the famous empty chair that remained between both companions then of the Council of Ministers, that they didn't even look at each other's faces.

This time the clash has been between La Moncloa and the Government of the Puerta del Sol, something that a priori could be less shocking because they are two institutions with leaders of different signs at the front, but that has left an image of unprecedented tension in this act of institutional court: a chief of protocol physically preventing the Minister of the Presidency, Relationship with the Cortes and Democratic Memory, Félix Bolaños, access the rostrum of the highest level authorities to witness the civic-military parade of the ceremony to which he had not been invited.

JOSÉ VICENTE MONLEÓN.

The person in charge of Protocol of the Ministry in question was the person who warned Bolaños during the celebration of Dos de Mayo to leave his secondary position behind the catenary where the authorities were located that they were not expected to go up to the rostrum of prominent personalities and try to ascend the staircase before the surprised look of his own comrades in the ranks: the candidates of the PSOE to the Community and the City Council of Madrid in the elections of May 28, Juan Lobato and Reyes Maroto, and the delegate of the Government in the region, Francisco Martín.

Dressed in a suit and red tie, Chevi -as he is nicknamed- led the de facto political vice president in La Moncloa to the place where he ran into the arm of the head of Protocol of the Executive of Isabel Díaz Ayuso prohibiting access. "The minister of Spain has to be," tried to argue unsuccessfully the current institutional position, which has been linked to the socialist acronym for more than 15 years.

ALEJANDRA BLÁZQUEZ.

The career of the head of Protocol of the current regional president is coupled with the Community of Madrid since 2005, during the mandate of Esperanza Aguirre. Since then, the head of this area has been linked to different ministries, especially Education, where she coincided a decade with the current press chief of the popular leader. She was one of the protagonists of the confrontation repeating up to three times that the Community had "a perfectly established organization" and claiming that if the 23 ministers of the coalition Executive presided over by Pedro Sánchez "could not raise the 23". "No one knows the protocol like she does in this government. She has been respected and valued by all institutions for years", they point out about her figure from the Puerta del Sol.

Alejandra Blázquez closing the way to Félix Bolaños.

RAFAEL OÑATE.

His political career in the institutional sphere is linked to that of Bolaños, of whom he was his cabinet director between February 2020 and July 2021 when he occupied the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Government. He now holds the same position with the rank of director general after the promotion of his boss to minister of the Presidency.

On the feast of Dos de Mayo he reprimanded the head of Protocol of the Community of Madrid for preventing Bolaños from accessing the rostrum. "You are breaching the decree of the protocol", repeated again and again who before his arrival at La Moncloa had been responsible for the digital communication of the PSOE.

FRANCISCO GARCÍA DE DIEGO.

Director of Communication of the Community of Madrid since last February, he has always been linked in his career to the Chief of Staff of the regional president, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez. In the regional government he exercised, until occupying his new position, as his right hand and throughout his stage in the PP their names have been united.

In the popular ranks he has served as head of Press and director of the Information Office of the party and also as Secretary General of Information within the Secretary of State for Communication of the central government, during the first stage in the Presidency of José María Aznar, and on Tuesday he was part of the Ayuso team that justified the prohibition of access to the minister.

MARU MERINO.

The head of the External Relations and Protocol Service of the Assembly of Madrid attended the scene with Bolaños and Blázquez, but without intervening at any time. He has a work experience of two decades in the organization of ceremonies and official events, most of that time in the regional Parliament of Vallecas.

  • Felix Bolanos
  • Isabel Diaz Ayuso
  • Community of Madrid
  • Government of Spain

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