The right-wing bloc that PP and Vox make up throughout the country, and that appears as the favorite to prevent a change of government in the next Andalusian elections, does not have its replica in Madrid, where the enmity between the popular mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, and the ultra-nationalist spokesman, Javier Ortega Smith, is entrenched and seems insurmountable with all kinds of crossed accusations.
And that today was a propitious day for the rapprochement of positions as there was unanimity when it came to carrying out the modernization of municipal Social Services. But not for those.
The alderman has accused the Vox spokesman of not setting foot in the City Hall or participating in practically any act in Madrid for giving priority to being secretary general of his party and national deputy in Congress. And he has responded by accusing him of causing "negative, institutional, political and economic effects" due to his "arbitrariness and legal prevarication" by allowing the creation of the Mixed Group (Recover Madrid).
Hostilities have started very soon. Almeida has welcomed Ortega Smith because, as he indicated, "I have looked at his agenda for the last month and he has not set foot in the City Hall, he has not come to practically any event, he has not held any meetings or visited any district."
In this sense, the mayor recalled that Ortega Smith accuses him of running for office with a lie, which was to put an end to Madrid Central. So he has wondered "why he presented himself as number one of Vox to the Madrid City Council if he does not set foot in the city of Madrid."
And, on the run, he asked him "why is he a spokesperson for the Municipal Group of Vox if he gives priority to being secretary general of Vox and being a national deputy". "Very honorable" dedications but, in his opinion, "incompatible with being a municipal spokesman."
"I am deeply sorry for the Vox voters who voted for him as number 1 on that list and who voted for him to serve as spokesperson here and to be present at City Hall. You are perfectly aware, as are the rest of us, that this is not taking place", Almeida has launched.
To these accusations, Ortega Smith, has responded that he was in all the plenary sessions and commissions that corresponded to him as spokesman and considered "a shame" that neither the mayor nor the deputy mayor, Begoña Villacís, attended the San Isidro procession because "they were in a concert".
At that point, the municipal spokesman for Vox has listed chronologically a series of political and judicial opinions, as well as the approval of some regulations with Recupera Madrid, which indicate, on the one hand, how Almeida has relied on the Mixed Group to move forward initiatives and why Recupera Madrid cannot have its own municipal group, in a speech at the Cibeles Plenary.
And, without forgetting Madrid Central, "in May 2019, you said that it was going to end and, with that, it was one of the most important electoral promises. Don't laugh (at Almeida), because it was true, and it means laughing of the people of Madrid".
Accusations to which Almeida has responded by urging Ortega Smith to take him to court if he believes that he has prevaricated with the constitution of the Mixed Group, a "serious accusation unbecoming of a jurist."
By allusions, the councilor of Recupera Madrid Luis Cueto, has defended that the creation of the Mixed Group is "the best thing that could happen to the people of Madrid" and has accused Vox of "making noise" because the judge "rejected their legitimacy to challenge" the budget agreement with the municipal government.
"You accuse us that we vote (with the Almeida government) because they give us resources; apart from being indecent, the thief believes that they are all of his condition, and of course it has nothing to do with our will to approve or vote, and Just as we have voted in favor of this City Council, we have asked for his resignation," Cueto responded.
Cuca Sánchez (Más Madrid), implicitly alluding to the messages addressed by the mayor, said that "today it was his turn to be accountable but he dedicated himself to attacking the opposition, making noise" when "what he has to do the mayor" is "fulfill the sentence".
"Here there is only one condemned person, who is the mayor of Madrid, and he is the one who has to serve the sentence, who does not divert the focus, who does not make noise, who does not kick, who is not about that, this about what" the alderman "comply with sentences", Sánchez has added, who has questioned whether the plenary results would have been the same being those of the Mixed Group non-attached councillors.
Finally, the mayor of the PSOE, Ramón Silva, has criticized that the interventions of PP and Vox constitute only "an attempt to criminalize everything that does not have a mark" of the two parties and has accused both of using the law "only for their own interests" and not to improve the lives of citizens.
