Madrid wants to be the Miami of Europe. In the fashionable restaurants of the capital of Spain, Spanish is spoken with all the accents of Latin America. Only Venezuelans are more than 110,000. They began to call the Salamanca neighborhood Little Caracas. The last to land have been the Mexicans: at the moment there are 10,000, but the number is growing daily. The majority are people with potential, who find in Madrid a city where it is easy to understand each other, not only through the language of the street, but also through the language of business. From her they value security, but also opportunities. The big funds rub their hands.
Pasqual Maragall was the first to notice that Madrid wanted to play in another division – “the world league of cities” – and they have succeeded. “Madrid is leaving”, the then mayor of Barcelona headlined an article in 2001 in El País. Aznar provided the infrastructure to make this possible, such as a large transoceanic airport and a high-speed network that meets in Madrid. In addition, the capital had the big companies and the procés got those that were missing to move their headquarters. "Madrid is gone," he stated years later in another opinion column.
If there is a business friendly city it is Madrid. It is almost a tax haven. Not only do you pay less taxes, but everything is easier than in other big cities. In her recent inauguration speech, Isabel Díaz Ayuso proclaimed that she wanted "a Madrid that is increasingly free, prosperous, humane, joyful and, as always, at the service of Spain." She did not say anything about a more supportive, balanced city with better public services. She then gathered her government and kicked them all out. She reduced her counseling to nine of hers and hired professionals to take care of things, that she was already in charge of politics. With Miguel Ángel Rodríguez in the war room.
The question that some ask is whether Madrid is sustainable for Spain. The capital is a vacuum of resources and opportunities. The idea of Madrid's disloyalty as a result of the capital premium pervades. It is good that Madrid is the shortest path to heaven, but that it is not at the cost of sending the periphery to hell.
