The Madrid City Council splits in two with the opinion after the commission for espionage on Ayuso

The municipal investigation commission for the alleged espionage of the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has ended falsely, with the municipal corporation (PP-Cs) divided -despite having shared an act in the previous hours- and with the institutional crisis still unresolved as it is estimated that there are still "unclarified facts".

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
07 June 2022 Tuesday 11:15
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The Madrid City Council splits in two with the opinion after the commission for espionage on Ayuso

The municipal investigation commission for the alleged espionage of the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has ended falsely, with the municipal corporation (PP-Cs) divided -despite having shared an act in the previous hours- and with the institutional crisis still unresolved as it is estimated that there are still "unclarified facts".

Despite the last-minute attempts to bring positions closer, only the transactional opinion of conclusions supported by a majority by Más Madrid, PSOE and Cs, with the abstention of the Mixed Group and the rejection of PP and Vox, has gone ahead.

Two more have been the opinions that have been presented. That of the Popular Party -which does not observe "fraud, corruption, bad practices or conflict of interest"-, and that of Recupera Madrid. Neither has managed to be approved, although both formations will keep them alive for their defense at the Plenary Session in June.

In the approved text it is concluded -by means of a veiled insinuation to the mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, more than with a direct signal-, that "obstacles were placed to discover the truth", that Álvaro González, president of the EMVS and person of trust of the alderman, "broke the code of ethics" of the company, and that Borja Carabante, Environment and Mobility delegate, and Almeida's right-hand man, "exceeded his functions". The Municipal Group of Citizens, specifically, understands that there was no use of public resources but "malpractice" and facts "without contrast" given the long list of absences.

The orange party has made special mention of the absence of the president of the Community of Madrid, who "could have given birth to many things, and nobody has been able to contrast".

The direction of the vote of his government partner has bothered the PP who, after insisting that "neither attempted nor commissioned" the espionage that Ayuso herself denounced at a press conference, has regretted that Cs has pointed directly to the popular councilors Borja Carabante and Álvaro González.

His spokesman on the commission, José Fernández, has insisted that "they already had the conclusions made", because they seek to "harm the PP" and has rejected "exemplary lessons" from Más Madrid and the PSOE.

The document, advanced by Europa Press, concludes that "it has been left beyond any doubt that the investigation commission had more than sufficient cause for its creation, as there are reasonable doubts as to whether there had been an improper use of public media to spy on relatives of Díaz Ayuso or an attempt".

"And therefore, it was important from every point of view to determine if there was an attempt, who participated in this plot and to what extent they participated, being accredited by the mayor himself, in his appearance on May 9, 2022, that the internal investigation existed, ordered by him, and that material and human resources of the Madrid City Council were used", collects the transacted text.

In an extensive 16-page document, the approved opinion of conclusions points out that, "despite the fact that the mayor publicly guaranteed that all the people from the PP who were called to the investigation commission would attend, this clear and manifest statement does not correspond to reality and with what has happened, since not even senior and eventual officials of his Government have attended, as can be deduced from the difficult to explain resignation file of Ángel Carromero", who was director of the Mayor's Office Coordination.

Precisely the recommendation so that in future commissions of investigation it is mandatory that all those who are called to appear do so under threat of being penalized or dismissed from municipal positions -if that were the case- has been one of the few points approved unanimously.