The strategy against Ayuso raises doubts in sectors of the PSOE: the "hand-to-hand" "gives him wings"

Raul Piña

Marta Belver Madrid

Madrid

Updated Thursday, March 21, 2024-02:01

• Feijóo Congress announces a "parliamentary and judicial investigation" into the corruption affecting Sánchez

• Justice The Madrid Bar Association denounces the Prosecutor's Office for revealing confidential data about Ayuso's partner

For two consecutive Wednesdays, Pedro Sánchez has demanded from his seat in Congress that Alberto Núñez Feijóo make Isabel Díaz Ayuso resign due to the problems with the Treasury and the investigation by the Prosecutor's Office into her partner,

Alberto González Amador

.

The leader of the PP counterattacks by asking for explanations about the meetings between Begoña Gómez, Sánchez's wife, with those responsible for

Air Europa

in the run-up to the rescue of this company that was decided in the Council of Ministers.

These are two cases that further cloud daily political life.

And in this situation, both the central government and Ferraz have decided to go

"hand to hand"

against the president of the Community of Madrid, with harsh attacks, descending into the mud.

A strategy that is not shared by everyone in the PSOE.

There are those who warn that this approach has already been shown to not work, that what it does is "give wings" to

popular

politics .

The relationship between La Moncloa and Puerta del Sol is already established, in a way that seems irremediable, at a point of no return.

The socialists have decided to go to the clash openly, to refute the "lies" and accusations that Ayuso champions and that they launch from Genoa.

Although members of the Government and the PSOE admit that this harsh tone is not good, the decision is not to slow down.

"This is not the

law of the funnel

. That is over," state government sources asked about it.

"It cannot be that what is valid for others is not valid for me," they reflect on the criticism that the leader of the PP has expressed on other occasions about matters, decisions, etc... of the Executive or its members.

There is a lot of unrest in Sánchez's team because it is considered that since he has been president, both politically and in the media,

"all borders have been crossed"

and "all codes have been broken."

The strategy of confrontation took hold in the socialist engine room when it was found that the Madrid president did not tell the truth about the case of her partner in a public appearance.

"What happens that the freedom that Ayuso preaches is freedom to lie? Well, if you lie, we are going to tell you and dismantle it," say the sources consulted.

"Once she lied, there is no longer any room for it," point out other socialist sources.

"Ayuso must be held accountable because he has lied with the logo of the Community of Madrid behind him," they add.

broken relationship

The relationship between Ayuso and the Government has been broken for a long time, but a turning point, which they neither forgive nor forget in La Moncloa and Ferraz, was the "I like fruit" that the Madrid president pronounced from the Congress rostrum when Sánchez , in his investiture speech, attacked her, pointing out the

commissions charged by his brother

in the purchase of masks for Madrid - both the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and the European Prosecutor's Office archived the investigation.

"We are talking about a political official who called the President of the Government a son of a bitch from the tribune of Congress," they say in the PSOE.

Ayuso is seen by the socialists as the paradigm of what it can mean if the PP takes power.

That is why they place it in the focus, trying to make visible the message that if they do not govern, Ayuso's policies, measures and ways will arrive.

Who they draw as a kind of

shadow leader

who threatens Feijóo as he did with Pablo Casado at the time.

But this clash produces an important institutional distortion: while the ministers visit the communities, they show a good relationship with PP presidents, they even walk with them in harmony - Teresa Ribera has done it with the Andalusian Juanma Moreno and the Murcian Fernando López Miras - , with Madrid there is no possible channel.

They are also gestures to show the anomalous case, to try to contrast to portray.

The precedent of 28-M

In the PSOE they are aware of what happened in the campaign for the 2023 municipal and regional elections, when messages such as the one

that Txapote voted for you

, which Ayuso championed, resonated and took its toll, partly due to the strategy of not responding, counteracting.

That 28-M was a debacle for the socialists.

"We have learned that we cannot remain silent in the face of lies," say government sources.

Now they enter, and fully.

Sánchez's strategists consider that it is the right thing to do, that what they should do is expose and make public opinion see the "lies" and "corruption" of the PP.

Take off their mask.

Demand transparency.

And it is the president himself who takes charge of the approach.

"Governing is not living in Moncloa. Nor is living in two apartments valued at more than

two million euros

paid largely for tax fraud to the Treasury," was Sánchez's attack this Wednesday.

On Tuesday, from La Moncloa, the Minister of Housing, Isabel Rodríguez, alluded to Ayuso and her complaints from a few years ago that she wanted to leave the rental but that she did not know how to buy because "Madrid was impossible."

"We have already found out how he did it, we already know how he lives and, unfortunately, all Madrid residents do not have the possibility of living in the Chamberí neighborhood or of spending two million euros. Fortunately, the majority of Spaniards do not commit crimes to access to housing."

However, in the Government and in the PSOE it is admitted that "we do not like muddy political life", despite the fact that when Sánchez formed his Government he opted for profiles such as Óscar Puente, foreseeing, as this newspaper reported, a legislature of "total war "with the PP.

But the strategy raises doubts in sectors of the socialist formation.

Not everyone believes that "melee" with Ayuso is positive and profitable.

"Until now it has not worked," admit PSOE officials consulted by this newspaper.

"We went down into the mud and Ayuso

achieved an absolute majority

," they say, recalling that the strategy of confrontation led to failure for the PSOE in Madrid and success for the PP.

Officials consulted by this newspaper doubt that the tone and strategy imposed by La Moncloa are the correct path.

They quarantine "the strategy of confrontation" because, they consider, it is abused and it should not be the President of the Government who leads it.

"It penalizes us a lot, the left-wing voter is very critical and so he tends to think that

all politicians are equal

," warns a leader of an important federation.

"This climate of all-out war generates political disaffection and ends up benefiting the anti-system, Podemos and Vox," adds another.

In the Madrid PSOE, on the other hand, the most widespread opinion is that the "appropriate" thing is being done and that "we must continue to push", although some do so with resignation: "There are people who do not like to involve families "Ayuso has lied and now we have no choice but to reproach him."