Javier Ortega Smith (Vox), Mar Espinar (PSOE), Rita Maestre (Más Madrid), José Luis Martínez Almeida (PP). The acting deputy mayor of Madrid, Begoña Villacís, has said goodbye to the plenary session of the Madrid City Council "removing the shame" of the councilors of the various municipal groups that end the legislature this week in an emotional exercise that they have not even gotten rid of his fellow citizens.
After eight years in the City Council, the "free citizen" and an "ex-politician", as Villacís herself has declared, she has considered herself qualified to "remove everyone's shame" with a last speech in plenary that has not left indifferent nobody because, although the words of the deputy mayor may sound like a threat, her intention has been none other than to list a battery of anecdotes and words of affection that have moved a good part of those present
Villacís has started with Vox, a party with which he resigned from being photographed at one point despite the fact that the agreement of the three rights allowed him to become Vice Mayor. And appealing to councilor Pedro Fernández, he has revealed that "95% of the councilors like him" reminding the left that "you can work with people from Vox".
He regretted not having had "the best Javier Ortega Smith in recent times" as the spokesman for the ultranationalist formation, but he wanted to praise his speech, "the best of all", in reference to the Villa Agreements signed by all parties as a consensus commitment to recover the city after the pandemic.
Fixing his gaze on the popular bench, Villacís has addressed the one who will be substituted as vice mayor, Inmaculada Sanz, describing her as "noble and upright". And immediately afterwards, he has also valued the work of the PP councilors Loreto Sordo, "a wonderful councilor who has not been recognized as she deserves", and Blanca Pinedo, who has decided to leave politics for personal reasons.
The groups of the left have also received their share in this enumeration of "shame." He wanted to congratulate the members of Recupera Madrid, José Luis Cueto and José Manuel Calvo "for their great electoral campaign", the councilor for the Mixed Group, Marta Higueras, for "always telling the truth" and the socialist, Mar Espinar, has aired that he sent "the best message at the moment he needed it the most" after the Ciudadanos electoral debacle that leaves Villacís with an aftertaste of "some disappointment and a lot of sadness."
The acting deputy mayor acknowledged that she is leaving with a feeling of "some disappointment and a lot of sadness" and called on the councilors who stay in the next term to "say things to the face, both good and bad."
When the acting deputy mayor said that she was going to bring out "the shame" of everyone, there were many councilors who looked surprised, but when they saw that they were good anecdotes and words of affection, the countenances of the mayors changed.
In the case of Rita Maestre, the Ciudadanos spokesperson has confessed that she has gone through "a pregnancy with the pants that a servant left her, and nothing happens," she added.
But his last words have been for the mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida. Despite knowing him politically for a long time, Villacís has commented that he did it personally at the funeral home, when his mother died. There, he has said, "I met a family that supported you. I hope your mother is watching you in 2023."
Visibly moved, Villacís has finished with a corny. "I know it sounds cheesy, but I ask you to hug yourselves; Politics often makes the profession strange. And that's bad." And she has revealed that politicians "we talk better behind your back than to your face. Therefore, say things to your face", she has finished confirming her goodbye to active politics to the sincere applause of the chamber.
