Intense day at the Madrid Assembly this Friday, December 22. When the majority of citizens are attentive to see if they win the Christmas lottery, the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso will approve the budgets for 2024 throughout the day. By having an absolute majority, the region's accounts will get ahead without problems. A total of 27,558 million for next year for the Community of Madrid, after having the accounts for the current year extended in the absence of an agreement with Vox to move them forward.
After this plenary session and its corresponding vote, another extraordinary plenary session will be held in which two important laws for certain groups will be modified: the Trans Law and the LGTBI Law. Both were approved in 2016 under the mandate of Cristina Cifuentes, also from the PP.
In addition, the green light will be given to the creation of a commission for the use of screens by young people. But the most striking thing is that an omnibus law will be passed - urgently - that will modify 15 laws at once.
Some of the planned changes give more power to the regional Government, in certain issues such as the direction of Telemadrid, the operation of the Transparency Council or the operation of the Chamber of Accounts. La Vanguardia analyzes some of the changes that will become effective this Friday, after the corresponding votes.
The PP registered two law proposals to modify the Trans law (Law 2/2016 of March 29 on Identity and expression of Gender and Social Equality and non-discrimination of the Community of Madrid) and the LGTBI law (law 3/2016 of March 22 of July of Comprehensive Protection against LGTBI phobia and discrimination based on sexual orientation and identity in the Community of Madrid). After their parliamentary processing, for Carla Antonelli, now a deputy in the Madrid Assembly for Más Madrid and a deputy in 2016 for the PSOE, one of the main promoters of the changes seven years ago, the reforms "empty the Trans and LGTBI laws of content". With the almost repeal of the current regulations, some terms are modified and in practice the rights of these groups will be cut.
The composition of this body goes from being made up of 3 professionals to 7. But with the changes, 5 of them will be elected by simple majority. The president will be elected by an absolute majority of the 7, that is, 4 votes in his favor will be enough. And the vice president will be appointed by the president. Until now, all were elected by a two-thirds majority of the Assembly, which required agreements to be reached between the autonomous parliamentary groups.
With the changes in the regulations that govern the transparency portal, Isabel Díaz Ayuso seeks to make it no longer mandatory to make public her academic record. And likewise, veto citizens' access to certain compromised information from the regional Executive. Its composition is reduced from 3 to 1 member and becomes dependent on the Office of the President. In practice, its decisions will go through the Assembly, but they will become mere procedures, since there will be no room for debates as the body is made up of a single professor.
Regarding the changes in Telemadrid, the main novelty is that the regional Executive will have - in practice - the power to appoint the general director. There has been no director for two years, but since September 23, 2021, José Antonio Sánchez has been in charge, who was appointed provisional administrator at that time. And to avoid problems of prolonged interim positions, they will be appointed for four years through the General Shareholders' Meeting at the proposal of the Board of Directors. As the Madrid Government is the main shareholder, it will have the power to appoint the number one on Madrid public television.
This regulatory change implies that the door is opened for the former presidents of the Community of Madrid to have a salary higher than the 8,500 euros per month that the current statute included. Ayuso has not assured that he is going to increase this figure, but he has not confirmed the opposite either.
One of the few issues that all parliamentary groups have agreed on is the creation of a commission to limit the use of mobile phones and tablets in schools. Some restrict the use from the center management, but from the commission it is expected that regulations will be created to unify criteria and delimit its use among students.
