Late in June, there were few polls that did not anticipate a comfortable victory for the PP in the general elections that were to be held in Spain five weeks later. The polls that, beyond the CIS, gave Pedro Sánchez's PSOE a chance could be counted on the fingers of one hand, and there were even plenty of phalanges for the count.
In the heat of these demographic studies, and strengthened by the absolute majority obtained in the regional elections in May, Isabel Díaz Ayuso (PP) configured a regional Executive tailored to her and with many new faces. Councilors with very technical profiles among whom there was no Javier Fernández-Lasquetty – Economy and Finance – or Enrique López – Presidency, Justice and Interior – who could overshadow him as had happened at specific moments in the previous legislature.
From Puerta del Sol it was argued that the restructuring was due to the need to “accelerate the approval of laws” to make up for the time lost due to the pandemic, first, and due to the “studs in the wheels of the coalition Executive of PSOE and Podemos”, later. But everything changed on the night of June 23rd. Both for Alberto Núñez-Feijóo, who saw his move to the Moncloa Palace disappear, and for Ayuso, who as the electoral count advanced had to assimilate that Sánchez would repeat as President of the Government, forcing her to continue confronting him on a recurring basis. But, in this case, without the appropriate wardrobe for those struggles.
Reading the situation was quick. 72 hours after the election night, and during a meal held at the historic Lhardy restaurant, open since 1839, halfway between the Congress of Deputies and the presidential headquarters of the Community of Madrid, Ayuso explained to her advisors the new horizon that the urns had drawn. And he knocked.
Although they had been chosen as “perfect managers”, circumstances had changed and the president needed them to take a step forward to help her sustain the ideological battle with Moncloa.
The response was positive and unanimous. And all of them went on vacation with the task of changing the chip and sharpening their speech. Including Ayuso herself, who, using the sterile, but long, round of contacts initiated by Feijóo for the formation of the Government, disappeared from the front line for much longer than in previous years.
The Puerta del Sol engine room has opted to dose the president. “If you are always hogging the spotlight, you will eventually burn yourself out,” popular sources argue to La Vanguardia to explain the need to undertake a “sawtooth” tactic, choosing when to lower the tone and then “raise it at key moments.” This is how Ayuso has been gradually sending his soldiers to the front.
The first round, with Emilio Viciana in charge, did not go well. The Minister of Education ended up backing down after the chaos of the dining room scholarships that left thousands of vulnerable families without the most basic aid and the opposition positioned him as "the weakest rival" attacking him in several plenary sessions for the "abandonment of public school against to Ayuso's gifts to the concerted agreement.” The icing on the cake came when, in response to a question about how to eradicate racism in the classrooms, Viciana invited the Más Madrid deputy who had questioned him to denounce the xenophobia of Junts. “A braking pass from someone who has never played in these categories,” the opposition pointed out.
It was there when the PP of Madrid, together with the Genoa team led by Miguel Tellado, gave oratory courses to a good part of the inexperienced deputies and counselors in the Chamber of Vallecas.
Despite this, there have been more missteps such as that of the Minister of Health, Fátima Matute. In his attempt to assume the speech that has given Ayuso so much profit to charge against the Ministry of Health for the possible restrictions on smokers on the terraces, he skated by saying in El Mundo: “I am not going to say that smoking is good, but "We must also ensure freedom." Criticism from the medical community was immediate.
In the PP they do not hide their unease over the lack of wardrobe, and even rumors have already been heard about a first government crisis to change some councilors. But, for now, they remain faithful to the established strategy. And although her body asks the president to go out and correct all those shortcomings and take on the ideological battle, her team is committed to taking some blows while they wait for the right moment. “And there are going to be many of those. The legislature has only just begun,” they guarantee.
