Five keys to regional elections in Madrid

A conservative bastion for 25 years, the Madrid region is organizing regional elections on Tuesday with strong implications at the national level.

Here are five things to know about these elections:

Crown Jewel ‘

With 6.7 million inhabitants and 20% of the national GDP, Madrid is the third most populous and the richest of the 17 regions of Spain.

72% of the 2,000 largest companies in Spain are based there, according to the Ministry of Industry.

Although Spain’s decentralized system grants broad powers to its regions, Madrid is the center of political and media power.

The region is sometimes referred to as the “crown jewelBecause of the national relevance received by its regional leader who, since 1995, has been from the Conservative People’s Party (PP).

Epicenter of the pandemic

Managing the pandemic was a central issue in the campaign because Madrid was the epicenter of the first wave of infections. In March 2020, the region had 40% of cases in Spain.

The health disaster led the regional authorities to install a temporary mortuary on an ice rink and to build a field hospital in a conference center.

The number of cases and deaths from COVID-19 in the region remains one of the highest in Spain, although it is lower than the figures for Paris, for example.

Pizza for your president

Great favorite of the elections, the Madrid president of the PP Isabel Díaz Ayuso opposed the policy of restrictions of the national government led by Pedro Sánchez (PSOE) and he opted for more permissiveness to safeguard the economy.

This strategy has made her the heroine of restaurants which, unlike other regions of the country, have not stopped their activity since the end of the first wave.

As a tribute, Pizzart, a chain of three restaurants in the center of the capital, dedicated a pizza to him, “Madonna Ayuso”, with tomato, mortadella, burrata and pistachios.

“Thanks to her, we were able to survive,” one of the restaurant managers, Marina Padilla, told local media.

On the contrary, detractors of Díaz Ayuso blame him for the high incidence of COVID-19 in the region.

A candidate arrived by boat

Podemos, which presents its leader and former vice-president of the central government as a candidate Pablo Iglesias, He has a migrant who arrived by boat in Spain in 2006 on his electoral list.

Former fisherman in Senegal, Serigne Mbayé, 45 years old, worked as an undocumented street vendor and was detained by police several times before obtaining Spanish citizenship.

Now he is the spokesperson for a union that represents the street vendors in Madrid, the so-called “manteros”, in reference to the blanket on which they place their merchandise.

If elected deputy, he promised to fight against racism in a region where immigrants represent 15% of the population.

A far-right Hispanic-Cuban as a possible coalition partner

Polls predict that Díaz Ayuso he will need the support of the far right of Vox, the third force of the National Congress, to form a majority that allows him to rule.

Its boss in Madrid, Rocío Monasterio, is a Hispano-Cuban architect whose father left the Caribbean country when his sugar plantation was expropriated by the Fidel Castro regime.

Comparing Podemos, Sánchez’s partner at the national level, with the Cuban communists, Monasterio accuses this party of destroying Spain with its social measures.

“I know exactly what it brings and what it brings is misery,” he said on television last month.

With controversial speech and forms, The monastery sparked Madrid’s already tense campaign when it questioned the veracity of the death threats received by Podemos candidate Pablo Iglesias against him, his wife and his parents..

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